SWABI, July 4: Growers on Wednesday set up a camp here to protest the Pakistan Tobacco Board’s failure to fix tobacco price. The development occurs at the call of Kashthkar Coordination Council (KCC).

At the camp set up in front of a tobacco purchasing centre here, leaders of tobacco growers said crop commissioner of the national food security and research ministry Dr Aslam formally wrote to the commerce ministry after a survey that the tobacco price should be Rs183 per kilogramme in light of the rising expenditure of tobacco production but the said price wasn’t being offered to growers.

They said the national and multinational tobacco buying companies had put the minimum tobacco price at Rs117 per kilogramme.
The speakers also complained that tobacco growers were denied representation in the PTB.

Liaquat Yusufzai, general secretary of KCC, said his organisation had distributed around 4,000 pamphlets across the district urging farmers to stay away from purchasing centres until they were offered the sought-after price of their crop.

He said a demonstration would be staged in front of the PTB offices in Peshawar today (Thursday) for better tobacco support price.

Mr Yusufzai said the Peshawar protest would be followed by a series of demonstrations.

Leaders of political parties and worker organisations visited the camp to express solidarity with protesters.

It is learnt that PTB and national and multinational tobacco buying companies have planned to begin purchasing tobacco in the first week of the current month.