QUETTA: Kisan Ittehad Chairman Khalid Hussain Bath has announced that farmers will launch a long march from Quetta to Islamabad on Friday, September 25, to press the government for the acceptance of their demands.
In a video statement, Bath said the march would begin from Quetta Press Club at 3pm on Friday, with thousands of farmers expected to participate from across Balochistan.
He said the number of protesters would increase to hundreds of thousands as the march progressed towards Islamabad.
Bath said the farmers’ demands were legitimate and that they were seeking their rights while continuing to contribute to the country’s security and economic stability.
He attributed rising inflation, including higher petroleum prices, to the ongoing war in the world and questioned the import of around 750,000 metric tonnes of wheat.
The Kisan Ittehad chairman also said farmers were still being charged electricity bills for transformers they had removed as part of their protest.
Kisan Ittehad had earlier announced plans to march on Islamabad on September 25 and stage a protest outside Parliament House.
Ahead of the march, Bath held meetings with lawyers’ organisations in Balochistan, where he sought support for the farmers’ demands.
Addressing a bar meeting, he said the Balochistan High Court Bar and other lawyers’ bodies had extended their support to the farmers’ long march.
The bar associations assured the farmers of their support in seeking solutions to their problems and demands.
Bath said farmers had repeatedly approached the government over their grievances but had received no meaningful relief.
He claimed that ready onion and tomato crops were being affected by smuggling from Afghanistan, causing losses to local farmers.
He also alleged that the Punjab government’s decision three years ago not to procure wheat from Balochistan farmers had caused losses of around Rs4 trillion.
Bath further alleged that farmers were being forced to sell wheat at prices that did not cover their production costs.
He said agriculture was the key to Pakistan’s economic development and argued that Pakistani farmers were unable to compete with their counterparts in India because of higher production costs, particularly electricity prices.
The farmers’ long march is expected to bring their demands over agricultural costs, crop prices, electricity bills and government procurement policies to the centre of attention in Islamabad.
