LAHORE, April 7: The Kissan Board Pakistan has demanded that the Punjab government stop the merger of Punjab Provincial Cooperative Bank Limited with the Bank of Punjab, failing which over 16,000 cooperative societies in the province will launch a protest movement against it from April 10.

Speaking at a seminar at the Lahore Press Club here on Monday, board president Sardar Zafar Husain Khan, vice-president Sarfraz Ahmad Khan, Anjuman-i-Kashtkaran’s Taqveem Ahsan, Aiwan-i-Zara’at spokesman Chaudhry Muhammad Abdullah and Cooperative Union director Mian Anwar Pasha said the caretaker government had initiated the merger against the wishes of stakeholders.

They said the Punjab Provincial Cooperative Bank was a farmer-friendly bank which offered loans up to Rs220,000 to them without security. There was no justification for merger along commercial lines as the “mafia” was eager to control its assets and stop the access of small farmers to collateral free loans.

They said the farmers would not allow the merger as it would be a serious blow to the cooperatives movement in the province. The board and cooperative societies would launch the movement by setting up a protest camp outside the Lahore Press Club on April 10.