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Farmers body, Kissan Ittehad on Sunday announced to begin countrywide protests from May 10 amid the wheat crisis in Pakistan, ARY News reported.
Kissan Ittehad Chairman Khalid Khokhar told a press conference that farmers will march to the streets on May 10 to protest the government's choice to import the crop rather than procure it from local farmers. Khokar alleged corruption in wheat imports and said that those implicated should be executed. He said that the "wheat mafia" profited (PKR)100 billion from the imports, while Pakistan suffered a loss of almost USD1 billion. According to the farmer leader, the reserve rate of wheat was increased in an attempt to adjust the "wheat mafia." The farmers produced large amounts of wheat, but they were deprived of their earnings because the authorities imported the grain, he claimed. The Kissan Ittehad chairman insisted that thousands of farmers will take to the streets to protest since the government had left them with no other option. According to Khalid Khokhar, the farmers approached the prime minister, army chief, director general of ISI, and minister of food security, but their concerns were not addressed, according to ARY News. He urged the civic society, media, attorneys, and business community to join the farmers' protest too. Khokar asserted that the protest would be peaceful and would continue till the government decided to procure the commodity from the local farmers. (ANI)
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