MARDAN   -  Anjuman-e-Kashtkaran Provincial President Haji Namat Shah Roghani on Friday said that government is trying to ban the cultivation of tobacco and for this purpose task has been given to some non-governmental organisations.

He expressed these views while speaking to meeting of farmers here on Friday. Alam Shier Khan general secretary, Syed Abdal Shah Bacha president Swabi, Farman Ali Khan general secretary Mardan district, Noor Rehman Information secretary, Qamar Zaman advocate, Habib Khan Mohmand, Tour Kaka, Zahir Muhammad and other farmer’s representatives also addressed the meeting. Speakers said that the farmers of the province in past used to cultivate opium but later on the government banned its cultivation. Speakers added that tobacco is the main cash crop of the province at present. They added that now government has started trying to ban tobacco cultivation through non-governmental organisations. Speakers said that thousands of families of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa are affiliated with tobacco crop.

They added that militancy and terrorism had already hit the people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa hard rendering thousands of employees jobless and now government wanted to ban the cultivation of tobacco.

Through this, government want to make thousands of more families jobless. They added that farmers of the province are living a miserable life in the current time and if the government banned the cultivation of tobacco, it will be the financial murder of the farmers of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

They added that our economy is depending on tobacco. Speakers said that an amount of more than Rs150 billion was going to federal government in the shape of excise duty while several other taxes were also imposed on tobacco.