HYDERABAD, March 30: Sindh Abadgar Board president Abdul Majeed Nizamani has said the agrarian economy of the country will be destroyed if the government does not adopt a pragmatic agricultural policy.

In a statement issued here on Thursday, he said the indifferent attitude of the government could destroy the sector.

He said that sugarcane growers had received good rates for their produce for the first time but the government seemed to have forgot that during the past three years, mill owners had fleeced growers allegedly with the active support of the government.

However, he said, with the exception of sugarcane crop, growers had not received even the cost of production of their crops such as rice, cotton, chillies, tomatoes, onions and maize.

He said that any increase in prices of fertilizers, pesticides, diesel, electricity and agriculture machinery would prove detrimental to the agriculture sector.

Mr Nizamani criticized the increase in prices of DAP, urea, ammonium sulphate, ammonium nitrate and other agricultural inputs and termed it a first step towards destroying the agricultural economy. He claimed that the second step would be preference to heavy industry in the ensuing federal budget which was manifest from ongoing pre-budget meetings and seminars. He regretted that the government had learned no lesson from its pro-industry and anti-agriculture policies despite the fact that the trade deficit had reached 16 billion dollars and more than 40 per cent population of the country was living below the poverty line.

He appealed to the president, prime minister and economic managers not to increase prices of agricultural inputs.

He demanded that the allocation for the agriculture sector in the ensuing budget should be made commensurate with its contribution to the GDP.

PRISONERS: The Supreme Court has observed that according to reports received from the Inspector General of Prisons, about 524 prisoners are confined in jails though they are involved in bailable offences.

A press release issued by the press information department of Hyderabad on Thursday said that under directives of the Chief Justice of Pakistan, chief secretaries and home secretaries of the provinces had been asked to provide lists of prisoners confined in jails in their respective provinces.

The Chief Justice directed courts to dispose of cases of such prisoners within two weeks and submit reports to the registrar of the apex court before the next hearing on April 17.

In this connection, notices have been issued to advocates general of the provinces to appear in the court along with details about disposal of such cases.

The order passed by the Chief Justice states: “Apparently, their detention is illegal unless it is proved that they are not in a position to furnish bonds for their release. Surprisingly, in some of the cases prisoners are in jail for a period of more than one year.”

The Chief Justice directed that statements submitted by the Inspector General of Prisons should be treated as criminal miscellaneous applications and fixed in the court for further hearing.