PAT expresses solidarity with protesting farmers

A PAT delegation led by Secretary General Khurram Nawaz Gandapur participated in the protest of the farmer community in front of the Punjab Assembly on the Mall Road Lahore. The delegation expressed its solidarity with the farmers and conveyed them message of Dr Tahir-ul-Qadri. The PAT leaders and the farmers chanted slogans of ‘Go system go’. The PAT delegation consisted of M. Noorullah Siddiqi, Ain-ul-Haq Baghdadi, and Imtiaz Awan.

Addressing the participants of the demonstration, Khurram Nawaz Gandapur said that the Sharif government does not understand the language of civility. He said that the farmers will have to snatch their rights. He said that when we staged sit-in in Islamabad, the arrogant and power drunk rulers, who shed streams of blood in Model Town, beseeched us in the container. He said that as long as the sit-in continued, the Prime Minister did not sleep in the PM House out of fear. He said that these rulers are as cowardly as they are oppressive and they capitalize on the masses’ helplessness and silence.

The PAT Secretary General said what kind of democracy and government this is that it is leaving no stone unturned to humiliate a community that produces food grain for 190 million people. He said that the farmers have been protesting in front of the largest constitutional house of the province but it has not stirred the Chief Minister into action. He said that when oppression is committed in Model Town, the Chief Minister is found sleeping; when the greatest child abuse scandal comes into limelight, the Chief Minister refuses to visit the affected families and when the farmers walk their way up to him for resolution of their problems, he does not even bother to respond. He said that it is the height of insensitivity and stubbornness.

Khurram Nawaz Gandapur warned rulers, who he termed as protectors and guardians of big businesses and industrialists that if the farmers are decimated, all the festivities of the Mall Road, Anarkali, and Liberty market will be no more. He said that when farmers grow food, it leads to prosperity. He said that all those belonging to the agriculture sector buy things from Lahore, adding that when they would be deprived of their purchasing capacity, the traders in the markets of Lahore would lose their customers in millions which would serve a severe blow to their businesses and there will be no production in the mills owned by big business and industrialists.

Khurram Nawaz Gandapur said that his party demands that the farmers be provided with cheap fertilizers, cheap seeds, and cheap electricity with full price of their yield. He said that local rice produced in Japan is not of good quality but the Japanese government does not import rice lest it should damage the local farmers. He said that contrary to this, our rulers import all vegetables but are not ready to give any concession to the farmers and it is anti-farmer policy. He said that children of the farmers who produce food grain for the whole of the country do not have access to basic necessities of life such as education and health. He said that he never saw stubborn rulers in whose tenure people belonging to all segments of society have taken to road to press for their demands and get their rights.

The PAT Secretary General said that Dr Tahir-ul-Qadri has given special importance to the development of farming community in his ten-point agenda. He said that welfare of the farmers is an important part of our manifesto. He said that we staged sit-in for 70 days, adding had the nation come out on the roads then, now the doctors, teachers, clerks and farmers would not have to take to the roads for their rights. He said that even now the people would have to raise their voice for their rights. He said that the PAT has braved the cruelty and oppression in the past for the rights of the people and will continue to raise voice for the downtrodden and under-privileged sections of society.