MULTAN, May 30: The Pakistan Seraiki Party organized a protest camp for the third consecutive day on Sunday to press the government for allocating funds for the area proportionate to the resources it injects to the national economy.

Senior PSP leaders attended the camp that was organized at the Pak Gate of the walled city of Multan. Prominent among the participants were Asadullah Khan Langah, Syed Hasan Raza Bokhari, Shafqat Maitla and Hakim Haider Iqbal.

The local leaders of the Communist Party of Pakistan, Irfan Haider Shamsi and Hasan Zaman Raan, also visited the camp to support the demand of a separate budget for the Seraiki belt.

PSP leaders said despite having a pivotal role in the agro-based economy, the Seraiki area was a picture of neglect because of step-motherly treatment at the hands of policy-makers in Islamabad and Lahore.

They said the development projects in the Seraiki area often remained mere announcements as the bureaucratic bottlenecks ran them into snags under one pretext or the other.

They also condemned the management of the Zarai Tarraqiati Bank for harassing the growers despite a one-year waiver announced by the government for the defaulters of farm loans.

They urged the legislators belonging to the Seraiki belt to raise voice for the allocation of a separate budget for the area in fiscal statements of both the provincial and the federal governments for the year 2004-05. Expressing concern over a drought in Cholistan, they urged the government to take necessary measures to save lives in the desert.

They also demanded enhancement in official procurement prices of cotton and sunflower besides a check on quality control of pesticides, seed, fertilizers and fuel. The Seraiki party will organize its camp for the fourth day on Monday at the Kumharanwala Chowk.