Pakistan: Start of Tobacco Purchase: Companies Ignorant about Notification

Source from:  DAWN Group of Newspapers (pk)  07/25/2012

Growers in the district on Monday welcomed the Pakistan Tobacco Board (PTB) notification for start of tobacco purchase. However, local managers of multinational and national companies expressed ignorance about it and said they had yet to receive orders from bosses for buying tobacco yield. In the notification, PTB said tobacco marketing operations would begin on July 21 and therefore, companies were advised to immediately begin purchase of FCV (Flue Cured Virginia). Tobacco growers, who met in Yaqoobi area, said they’re unable to pay wages to workers as companies had delayed purchase of their produce. Senior vice-president of Anjuman-i-Kashtkaran Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Haji Neghmat Shah said houses and godowns of growers had run short of space. He said any further delay in tobacco purchase could cause more disturbances for growers and therefore, the government should step in for easing their misery. Yaqubi Jirga president Inayat Bacha said delay in tobacco purchase had affected 70 per cent of the maize crop to be cultivated in tobacco fields. “We’ve stopped harvesting tobacco and will grow maize only after tobacco is harvested,” he said. Hazrat Hussain, another jirga member, demanded early purchase of tobacco by companies and said thousands of families associated with tobacco farming would be in distress if that didn’t happen. Meanwhile, traders in Topi tehsil on Monday protested the Peshawar Electric Supply Company’s failure to repair power transformer by blocking the road leading to Tarbela in front of Meena Bazaar. The protest suspended traffic for long hours. Protesters said the Pesco delay in repairing the 100KV transformer, which went out of order due to overload of late, had stressed them out, especially during Ramazan. They, however, dispersed after Pesco officials assured them of early repair of the transformer. Enditem