MULTAN - Former Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gillani has said that the PPP will keep playing key role for the protection of democracy to strengthen political culture in the country.
Talking to different delegations here at his residence, he asked the rulers to take practical steps for steering the country out of crises like loadshedding and terrorism instead of giving mere statements. He maintained that the power crisis, unemployment and lawlessness further added to the miseries of people.
He declared that his endeavour for the creation of Saraiki Province would continue. He added that Saraiki Province was right of residents of South Punjab and the proposed province could get the residents of this region rid of sense of deprivation. He said that the PPP had taken solid steps for creating the said province, asking the rulers to fulfil this dream of Saraikis. He said that the workers were a precious asset of the party and he respected them from the core of his heart. To a query on his kidnapped son, he said that he was oblivious of his whereabouts. “I don’t know if he is in Pakistan or Afghanistan,” he added.
CRACKDOWN ON SEED MAFIA: The Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association (PCGA) has demanded the Government to launch crackdown on seed mafia which supplied poor quality seeds, resulting into low production of cotton and heavy losses to the cotton growers.
Talking to a delegation of agricultural experts, the Chairman of PCGA, Haji Hafeez Anwar, further demanded the government to ensure the supply of well-germinated, certified and heat-virus resistant seeds.
He said that Pakistan can produce more than 20 million bales of cotton provided the laws were promulgated to combat the adulteration and supply of substandard agricultural inputs and to give exemplary punishment to the responsible persons.
Ginners group Chairman Haji Muhammad Akram, Vice Chairman Rao Sadaruddin, Nawab Shehzad Ali Khan also joined him and stressed the need for allowing the well reputed multi-national companies to sell their seed and insurance facility must be provided to the growers to save them from the devastation in caseof naturakl calamity.
Ginners protest against TCP
Meanwhile, the ginners strongly protested against the Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP), claiming that it blocked payment of an amount of Rs. 2300 million to the ginners who had sold out 94,600 bales of cotton to the TCP. They alleged that the TCP bosses did not abide by the instructions of Economic Coordination Committee regarding the procurement of one million bales against Rs.25070 million and flatly refused to buy the cotton stock of those ginners who did not grease their palms. They further told that TCP men collected the samples from more than 300 ginning factories and 90 per cent samples were okayed but they did not procure the stock for the reason best known to them.