Naimat Khan
KARACHI: Workers of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) continue to stage sit-in near Presidential camp office in Karachi despite several attempts of police to disperse the protestors who had been waiting for a rally of growers from Hyderabad to join them here on Wednesday.
According to spokesman PTI Sindh, Dawa Khan Sabir, the rally which was stopped at several points had finally entered Karachi when this report was filed.
Police have beaten the workers in order to disperse but they after going back continue to sit-in, which was continue near Gymkhana Karachi.
“The rally would go towards CM House once the growers and PTI workers from interior Sindh, join us,” Khan told The Frontier Post.
The Kisan Insaf Rally, organized by Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) against the refusal of sugar mills to pay the officially fixed price of ca0ne crop to growers, earlier reached the outskirts of Karachi where the security personnel have reportedly stopped them from proceeding further.
The rally started from Hyderabad earlier in the day had been heading towards the Sindh Chief Minister house in Karachi, where the participants are expected to stage a sit-in to mark their protest against the sugar mill owners.
The party has organized this rally to express support for cane growers. PTI leader Haleem Adil Shaikh, who is leading the rally, had earlier accused that the Sindh government and “Zardari league” were supporting the sugar mill mafia. The participants are likely to present a memorandum to the chief minister regarding the sugar cane issue.
He had also pointed out that two ministers had extended fake assurances to farmers regarding the start of crushing season at sugar mills and the payment of official rate to cane growers.
On Wednesday afternoon, the PTI activists led by the party’s provincial leader Haleem Adil Shaikh gathered at Rajputana hospital road and took out a rally in support of growers’ demand for payment of Rs182 per 40 kilogrammes — as notified by the Sindh government on December 5, 2017.
However, a heavy contingent of police gathered there and tried to prevent the participants from heading towards Karachi through Hyderabad bypass. The police parked oil tankers and containers on the road but the charged activists forcibly removed the tankers and headed to the bypass.
Later, police made another attempt at the bypass near toll plaza but the activists once again removed the barricades erected by police.
Growers in Khairpur end protest after assurance about implementation of SHC orders
Earlier in the day, the sugarcane growers protesting on National Highway in Khairpur district culminated their sit-in protest after a six-member team led by MPA Naeem Kharal gave assurances to them that the Sindh High Court’s orders regarding the opening of sugar mills would be implemented in true letter and spirit.
On December 21, a division bench of the Sindh High Court in Karachi passed a detailed interim order in favour of growers, ordering millers to pay Rs172/40kg to growers and deposit security against the differential amount of Rs10/40kg with court’s Nazir.
The sugarcane growers had been protesting for last four days against the sugar mills’ refusal to pay the officially fixed price of cane crop to them and closure of some sugar mills.
