SWABI: The government has been accused of its apathy towards uplift of the poor tobacco growers despite getting millions of rupees in tobacco cess, every year.

Talking to Dawn on Friday, Liaqat Yousufzai, general secretary of Kashtkar Coordination Council, said that last year, the government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa received about Rs450 million and the Pakistan Tobacco Company Rs140 million, respectively, in tobacco cess, but the lot of the poor growers remained unchanged.

Mr Yousufzai said that in 2013, the federal government received about Rs70 billion through different taxes imposed directly and indirectly on tobacco crop. He added that the figure could jump further after tobacco purchasing season concluded this year.

Khalid Khan, district president of the Kisan Board, said that the entire burden of these taxes was passed onto the poor farmers, while the benefits were reaped by the powerful and influential purchasing companies.

The growers’ leaders urged the multinational and national tobacco purchasing companies to help the poor peasants to get out of the abject poverty.

Meanwhile, the purchasing season of the Flue-Cured Virginia (FCV) tobacco is expected to be completed in the next three weeks. A leaf manger of a purchasing company told Dawn that the purchase of FCV was likely to continue till September 20.

Meanwhile, sources in Pakistan Tobacco Company and Philip Morris International, Pakistan said that the total demand of tobacco during the current year was 78.36 million kilograms. That said that the total demand of FCV stood at 74.135 million kilograms, this year.

They said that as compared to the previous year, the requirement of FCV and Dark Air-Cured tobacco was higher by 19.30 and 50 per cent, whereas the demand for White Patta and Burley came down by 27 and 10 per cent, respectively. Overall, they said that total requirement of tobacco purchasing companies got increased by 18.37 per cent, this year.

TWO BROTHERS ARRESTED: The police have arrested two brothers on charges of involvement in the killing of their nephew and his mother in Topi city on Aug 21.

DPO Sajjad Khan told a press conference here on Friday that the two brothers had got registered a fake FIR against two people in connection with the killings. They were arrested after police investigation pointed to their involvement in the case, he added.

The DPO said the woman, Kwadeja Bibi, and her son, Shah Faisal, were killed and their bodies were put in bags and thrown in fields. They belonged to Badahber area of Peshawar.

“Faisal’s uncles, Aziz-ur-Rehman and Zabitha Khan had registered an FIR against Masiullah and Saleem of their locality and had told the police that the accused had killed their nephew and aunt over old enmity,” said Mr Sajjad.

A police team led by SP investigation Nisar Khan investigated the case on different angles and found that the two brothers were involved in the murder.

The DPO said that the police arrested Aziz and his brother, Zabitha Khan, and after interrogation they confessed to their crime. The police also arrested two others, Daulat and his brother Tufail, in this connection.

Published in Dawn, August 30th, 2014