Pakistan: Recommendations of Framework Convention on Tobacco Control Rejected

Source from:  Frontier Post (pk)  09/07/2012

President Sarhad Chamber of Agriculture Ahsan Ullah Khan raised his voice in favour of more than forty thousand tobacco growers against the recommendations of Framework Convention on Tobacco Control and said that officials from Switzerland were not aware of the ground realities of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, says a press release issued on Wednesday. Ahsan Ullah Khan, according to the press release, acknowledged the vulnerability of tobacco farmers who had to constantly face challenges like crop size restrictions, market monopolization, scarce labour etc and said that the farmers were now worried about the recommendations of FCTC to decrease tobacco cultivation. Ahsanullah expressed reservations on artificially forcing alternate livelihoods on tobacco farmers in Pakistan and maintained they should not be prohibited from tobacco farming, added the press release. He said that if the farmers were made to choose alternate livelihoods, they should have a say in it. Ahsan Ullah Khan said that such proposals were being made by bureaucrats from Geneva who had little knowledge about tobacco farming or the challenges being faced by Pakistani farmers. The press release said that the decrease in cultivation would result in unemployment of the farmers, as the tobacco growing areas were unfit for other crops. He said, 'with Government and civil society organizations,' he adds, 'efforts to promote good agricultural, healthcare and labour practices, safe, fair and environmentally sound tobacco farming can be achieved', adds the press release. President Sarhad Chamber of Agriculture, in the press release, appealed the government high ups to defend the interest of tobacco farmers and reject any FCTC policy recommendations especially with regard to article 17, 18 that may be injurious to the livelihood of the farmers. Enditem