ISLAMABAD   -  Prime Minister Imran Khan on Thursday urged international community to fulfil its collective responsibility to avert a grave humanitarian crisis confronting people of Afghanistan.

In a tweet, the prime minister said Pakistan has always stood with the Afghan people in their hour of need. The Prime Minister said we have assured Afghan acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi and his delegation that we will provide all possible humanitarian aid to Afghanistan.

“We are sending essential food items, emergency medical supplies and winter shelters to provide immediate relief to Afghan people.” The Prime Minister said we will also provide free Covid-19 vaccines to all Afghans travelling across the border into Pakistan.

Also, Prime Minister Imran Khan Thursday met a delegation of farmers from South Punjab wherein he called for immediate steps in collaboration with Punjab’s Irrigation department to stop water theft from canals.

Underlining the importance of resolving problems faced by the genuine farmers, he emphasised decreasing middleman’s role to enable the farmers get good price of their products. The prime minister further directed the authorities concerned to invoke relevant laws to deal with cartelisation and to shun hoarding practices.

Earlier, the prime minister was informed that it was likely that Rabi crop would be affected due to 28% shortage of water in reservoirs. The prime minister said the shortage could be met by stopping water theft from the canals.

The prime minister was apprised that Pakistan was blessed with a rich natural resource base for agriculture. However, despite having one of the world’s best alluvial soils, diversified weather conditions, the best irrigation system and assiduous farmers, the country could not fully harness the potential of our agriculture sector mainly because of misplaced priorities of the previous governments.

The prime minister said that in order to explore full potential of the agriculture sector, the government has launched Agriculture Emergency Program worth Rs. 277 billion, an unprecedented allocation for the sector.

This initiative is aimed at enhancing the productivity of wheat, rice, sugarcane, pulses, and oilseed crops, besides developing livestock and water sectors.

The prime minister said the government was also extending Kissan Cards to farmers, especially the smaller ones, for modernizing the agriculture sector.

Through this card, he said the farmers would get benefits of various government programs, such as crop loans and subsidies on fertilizers, seeds and pesticides.

Due to government’s favorable policies, the production of wheat, rice, maize, sugarcane, potato, onion and groundnut has increased to a record level despite COVID pandemic. The meeting was also attended by Minister for National Food Security Syed Fakhar Imam, Industries Minister Makhdoom Khusro Bakhtiar and Energy Minister Muhammad Hammad Azhar.

Meanwhile, Members of the National Assembly from various constituencies Thursday called on Prime Minister Imran Khan here. The parliamentarians discussed with the prime minister the development projects and political matters of their respective constituencies.

The legislators who called on the prime minister in different meetings included Riaz Fatyana, Fazal Muhammad, Ramesh Kumar Vankwanni, Sardar Nasrullah Khan Dareshak, Alia Hamza, Saira Bano, Rubia Jamil and Norin Ibrahim. Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Political Affairs Malik Amir Dogar also attended the said meetings.