BY:ANI Correspondent:
ISLAMABAD—Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Farmers’ Wing Central Information Secretary Khalid Nawaz Sadhraich has said that Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi’s recent acknowledgment of systemic failure confirms what Pakistan’s farming community has been warning the government about for years.
In a statement issued on Friday, Sadhraich said farmers had repeatedly highlighted the collapse of agricultural policies, unfair marketing practices, rising production costs, and the growing influence of middlemen and commission mafias. However, he alleged that successive governments ignored these concerns while protecting vested interests.
He said farmers had lost confidence in the existing system due to anti-farmer policies, delayed wheat procurement, inconsistent pricing, expensive agricultural inputs, and weak market regulation, leaving cultivators to sell crops below production costs while consumers continued to pay high prices.
Sadhraich maintained that Mohsin Naqvi’s remarks should be viewed as an acknowledgment of deep structural flaws in governance, particularly in the agriculture sector. He urged policymakers to accept responsibility and implement meaningful reforms instead of offering temporary solutions.
The PTI Farmers’ Wing spokesman called for comprehensive agricultural reforms, including transparent policies, timely procurement, cost-based support prices, strict action against market manipulation, affordable farm inputs, and greater investment in agricultural research.
He warned that Pakistan could not achieve sustainable economic growth while neglecting agriculture, which supports rural livelihoods, provides raw materials to industry, and contributes significantly to exports.
Sadhraich urged the government to treat the Interior Minister’s statement as an opportunity for immediate corrective action, saying the real tragedy was that millions of farmers had warned of the crisis for years but were ignored. He stressed that restoring farmers’ confidence would require justice, transparency, and policies that prioritize growers over vested interests.
