Pakistan Province Wants Control Over Tobacco Crop

Source from:  Tobacco Reporter 12/23/2010

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, formerly the North-West Frontier Province, has demanded full rights over its tobacco crop, according to a story in The News. The provincial assembly yesterday constituted a committee under the chairmanship of its Agriculture Minister, Arbab Ayub Jan, to present its case to the federal government. The Pakistan People's Party's parliamentary leader, Abdul Akbar Khan, who initiated the debate, said that though tobacco was the province's only cash crop, the authority to deal with it rested with the federal government. But the federal government had ignored tobacco growers and left them at the mercy of multinational companies. These companies were fixing prices on their own and purchasing tobacco from farmers at low rates, he alleged. Enditem