SHO injured, 10 fall unconscious in police-villagers clash in Badin

Dawn Report | 3/2/2016

BADIN: A station house officer (SHO) was injured and 10 protesters, most of them women, fell unconscious when a strong contingent of police tried to evict several families allegedly occupying around seven acres of land in Sain Bux Rind village, located within the Ward-5 of the city, on Tuesday.

Witnesses said that a police force riding eight vans and an armoured personnel carrier surrounded the village and ordered its inhabitants to vacate the land immediately.

However, the villagers offered stiff resistance claiming that they had been living on these lands for more than four decades.

The police force moved into action and started demolishing the houses one after the other. The villagers, men and women, tried to physically stop the police from going ahead with the operation upon which they were baton-charged, which aggravated the situation. More people joined in the resistance and during the course of the clash, SHO of the Model police station Hakim Ali Jalbani, who was leading the operation, was attacked with a hatchet. Police lobbed teargas shells to disperse the protesters causing eight women and two children to fall unconscious.

The police officer was rushed to the Badin Civil Hospital where doctors referred him to the Hyderabad Civil Hospital due to his grave injuries.

According to villagers, two children jumped into the nearby canal when they could not bear the suffocation caused by teargas. They were unaccounted for till late in the evening, they added.

The villagers claimed that the land in question belonged to the Badin Industrial Zone and they had never been asked by any authority to vacate it until Deputy Commissioner Rafique Ahmed Qureshi recently leased out a portion of it to a friend of his, Tariq Ahmed. They alleged that the DC issued the eviction order to oblige the `buyer` and asked the area police to use force against them [occupants of the land].

The DC, however, insisted that the villagers were illegally occupying the land and would have to vacate it.

Reports reaching here late in the evening said that a 600-strong police force sent to the scene surrounded the village with the help of 15 vans and an armoured personnel carrier.

Four villagers were picked up on suspicion of their involvement in the attack on the SHO.

http://epaper.dawn.com/DetailImage.php?StoryImage=02_03_2016_119_001

 

Capitalist Agriculture caused Hunger

October 16, 2015

World Hunger Day (Press Release)

The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has been celebrating 16 October as World Food Day from the past 70 years. This year it’s slogan for the World Food Day is “Agriculture and Social Security.”

Pakistan Kissan Mazdoor Tehreek (PKMT) and Roots for Equity along with other farmer movements and organizations like the Asian Peasant Collision (APC) and Pesticides Action Network (PAN AP) observers the World Food Day as World Hunger day. Even today, 60% of Pakistani population does not have food security, whereas 50% women suffer from anemia. In Pakistan 35% of small children die from malnutrition, and 50% of children less than 5 years suffer from stunting.

For the World Hunger Day, PKMT had organized a protest in front of the TMA Hall, Haripur, Khyber Pakhtunkwa. Various PKMT leaders including Raja Mujeeb, Tariq Mahmood, Fayaz Ahmed, Altaf Hussain and Wali Haider spoke against the prevailing hunger in the country. It is a bitter truth that in an agricultural country like Pakistan, farmers are facing hunger because more than 70 percent of them are landless. Landlessness and exploitation of farmers is entrenched in the semi-feudal structure of the economy and encroaching capitalist policies.  Land grabbing through government support for corporate agriculture is increasing across the country.

Climate change is also a critical reason behind increasing hunger and food insecurity. The carbon emissions from industrial production in capitalist economies are a prime reason for Pakistan being one of the most vulnerable countries impacted from climate change. In the previous years, farmers have been facing debilitating economic loss due to yearly floods causing destruction of crops and loss of livestock. Tharparkar is facing acute drought that has killed thousands of children and livestock. Almost 40 percent of the population has had to move in search of food and livelihood.

DSC_0598

The elitist Pakistani government in collusion with International organizations, first world governments and the hegemonic international corporate sector are promoting trade liberalization. An example is the approval of the Seed Amendment Act 2015 that protects the interests of the agro-chemical corporations and allows the spread of genetically modified seeds in the country. The approval of this draconian law will take away the right of farmers to save and develop seeds: in this scenario how can they ensure food security in the country? Neoliberal policies have already pushed small and landless farmers into debt making them dependent on agro-chemical corporations.  The increased production prices have pushed many farmers to migrate in search of other livelihood.

DSC_0578

DSC_0617

Pakistan is being forced to accept alternate fuel technologies. These include agro fuel crops such as sugar cane and maize; large tracts of land are being used for installation of solar and wind energy projects. All of this will lead to further shortage of land and food and can only exacerbate hunger!

Pakistan Kissan Mazdoor Tehreek and Roots for Equity demand an end to Feudalism and Corporate Farming. In order to attain food sovereignty and sustainable agriculture it is critically important that equitable distribution of land amongst small and landless farmers is carried out. In addition, all decision making and implementation of agriculture policies must be in the hands of small and landless farmers!

PKMT and Roots also hold a protest in front of Sukkur Press club, Sindh on the eve of World Hunger Day on 16th October, 2015. PKMT leaders Ali Gohar, Ali Nawaz, Hakim Gul, Mohammd Azim, Gul Hassan spoken to the protest and highlighted the issue of small and landless farmers in Sindh. They demanded Genuine Agrarian Reforms and also rejected the recently passed Seed Amended Bill 2015.

received_155673804782299.jpeg1

Released by: Pakistan Kissan Mazdoor Tehreek and Roots for Equity

Senate body approves controversial bill on importing GM crops seed

ISLAMABAD: A Senate committee approved on Wednesday the controversial Seed Amendment Bill 2015 which the National Assembly has already passed.

But the controversy is likely to persist because the law allows the import and commercialisation of genetically modified (GM) crops in Pakistan, which many agricultural and environmental experts consider harmful for the country.

It was the controversy that made Senate chairman refer the bill to the Senate Standing Committee on National Food Security to address the concerns farmers, lawyers, civil society and seed company associations had about the legislation.

Critics allege that the government took advantage of a turbulent period when public attention was fixed on terror attacks to get the National Assembly pass the bill “unanimously”.

Chairman of the Senate committee Senator Syed Muzafar Hussain Shah also announced unanimous approval of the bill at the conclusion of three-hour long discussion on it in the committee on Wednesday.

However, one member, Senator Mohammad Mohsin Khan Leghari, did oppose passing the bill “in haste” and allowing GM crops into Pakistan without laying down the rules and procedures to regulate imported seeds.

He said the Ministry of Food Security and Research should guarantee that the imported GM seeds are free of disease and suitable for the local environment, and wondered “why are we pushing for passing the bill when nations from Asia to South America have had terrible experiences with GM crops?”

“Farmers in India are committing suicide because of poor results of growing Bt Cotton. There farmers are entangled in a web knit by multinational companies and their indigenous cotton seeds have been wiped out,” he reminded.

Senator Leghari believes that the Seed Amendment Bill 2015 is being passed in haste without analysing the consequences of opening our doors to GM crops.

An agriculture expert in Pakistan Agriculture Research Council described the legislative exercise as illegal.

“The National Assembly cannot discuss the bill since its subject is a provincial matter. After the 18th Constitution Amendment, the provinces have the authority to frame laws on the subject,” he said.

A government official, on the condition of anonymity, shared his belief with Dawn that the government misinformed the Senate Standing Committee that provincial assemblies of Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab and Sindh had passed resolutions under Article 144 of the Constitution allowing the federal government to make amendments to the bill.

The Punjab government sent only its comments on the bill, according to him.

Federal Secretary Food Security and Research Seerat Asghar conceded to the Senate committee that Pakistan lacked mechanisms and trained manpower to ensure checks and balances on genetically modified cotton, but said “this bill ensures checks and balances. It lays down a strict procedure to check and regulate GM crop seeds.”

“To satisfy the committee, the government will consult its members while making rules on imports of genetically monitored crop seeds to make regulations strict,” said the official, urging the committee not to delay the bill further for it had been hanging fire since 2007.

Pakistan is signatory to Cartagena Protocol on Bio-safety, which does not permit import and commercialisation of GM crops without bio-safety regulations and proper infrastructure in place.

Anti-GM lobby in the country says that 85 per cent of Pakistan’s cotton belt is already under genetically engineered Bt cotton and multinational seed and pesticides companies are pushing to introduce genetically modified corn and maize seeds.

Many agricultural and environmental experts have been arguing that GM crops threaten Pakistan’s food security.

Critics say the bill ignored the eight-year long trial period of imported GM crop varieties/hybrid in different locations to study its adaptability and assess diseases that could spread from sowing into the local environment and have hazardous impact on human health.

They also say that genetically modified cotton introduced in Pakistan has been a failure. Growers complain that use of pesticides has increased and yields gone down since the GM cotton seed arrived as pests have developed resistance to the variety sooner than expected.

These critics claim that the government is trying to introduce Bollgard II, the second generation of Bt cotton seed, after Bollgard I failed to deliver promised results over the past five years.

Published in Dawn, June 11th, 2015

http://www.dawn.com/news/1187523

18 Indonesian Peasant leaders are arrested!

Jakarta (20/4/15). 18 militant peasant leaders of Aliansi Gerakan Reforma Agraria (AGRA- Alliance of Agrarian Reform Movement,  a militant peasant organisation are arrested in the front US Embassy in Jakarta. They are being arrested for their action against US intervention in 60th Asia-Africa Conference that already held since yesterday in Jakarta

This photo is taken from inside police bus, on their way to Jakarta Police Headquarters

This photo is taken from inside police bus, on their way to Jakarta Police Headquarters

Farmers Sovereignty or Corporate Sovereignty

An abridged version of this piece was printed in the Finance and Business pages of Daily DAWN on March 13, 2015.

http://www.dawn.com/news/1175542/farmers-or-corporate-sovereignty

The Pakistan Senate, in the context of passing the Amended Pakistan Seed Act 2014, has much to think about. It is indeed fortunate that so many new developments with respect to genetic engineering technology are coming to light at this point which will provide the Senate easy access to the many pros and cons in evaluating acceptance or rejection of the draft Amended Seed Act 2014, which was accepted by the Pakistan National Assembly, just four days prior to the new findings provided by International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), and organ of the World Health Organization (WHO).

IARC has stated that glyphosate is “probably carcinogenic to humans.” The news brief in which this statement was made by the IARC to assess the carcinogenicity of the organophosphate pesticides is of critical importance was published in the globally acclaimed medical journal The Lancet on March 20, 2015. The brief is a summary of the report that is to be published shortly as Volume 112 of the IARC Monographs.

According to IARC “Glyphosate is a broad-spectrum herbicide, currently with the highest production volumes of all herbicides. It is used in more than 750 different products for agriculture, forestry, urban, and home applications. Its use has increased sharply with the development of genetically modified glyphosate-resistant crop varieties. Glyphosate has been detected in air during spraying, in water, and in food.

Glyphosate is used in the Monsanto’s branded herbicide Roundup Ready which can be sprayed on crops that have been genetically engineered to tolerate glyphosate. In essence, Glyphosate is dangerous for human and animal health. But Monsanto is once again refusing to accept the WHO report. This has been the refrain that Monsanto has used for all scientific studies which point to the dangers of GM technologies.

For the Pakistan Senate, this news is of critical importance in deciding the fate of the Amended Seed Act 2014. For more than two decades, across the globe people’s organizations, farmers’ organizations and many credible scientists societies have been asking governments to follow the precautionary principle meaning only use a new technology when it has been proven to be safe. But gigantic corporations such as Monsanto have consistently blocked moves by governments to follow a more sustainable agriculture policy, especially policies which guard economic interests of small farmers as opposed to corporate interests.

However, to some extent genetically engineered crops and seeds and other GE products have steadily been facing mounting pressure from many sides. In this respect, one cannot forget the recent legislation passed in January 2015 in the European Union which has given its individual member countries to allow GM crop production in the country as per their own decision. This is basically due to the persistent position taken by European people in many countries especially Germany and France, that they consider GE foods and crops very harmful to human health and the environment, and did not want to be put to risk by consuming such products.

If such highly technologically advanced countries such as in the EU are opposing GE crops, is it not important for the Pakistan Senate to think about promoting such technology which could harm their own people? In Pakistan, the National Biosafety Committee is no more functional and hence there is no legal mechanism for approving new GE  seeds in the country. The issue under the 18th Amendment is now a provincial subject, but the provinces have not taken any steps to take on this responsibility. In a recent news item by DAWN it was stated that according to Mr. Asif Shuja, former director general of the Environment Protection Agency, the country does not have the expertise to conduct safe trials of GM crops.

Further, the current EPA Director General, Mr. Khurshid has termed GM crops as ‘weapons of mass destruction’. Similar statements have been made by the Foreign Office, Pakistan who believes that GM seeds are a matter of national security and trade. No doubt, this is in context to the TRIPS agreement in the World Trade Organization (WTO); an agreement which was forced on third world countries to guard the profit-driven interests of advanced industrial countries. Paramount among them was the USA who was guarding the IPR interests of its agro-chemical, seed and biotechnology firms.

In Pakistan, many non-government organizations, and mass-based farmer organizations and associations have taken a principled stand against accepting genetically engineered seeds in the country. Recently, many farmer organizations and NGOs have sent a letter to the Chairman Senate asking them to reject the proposed Seed Act 2014 and in its place enact a Bill which would protect the seed sovereignty interests of the small farmers of th country, who are no doubt the most productive force of the country. The stand is not only based on issues of environmental and health concerns that are the basis of a majority of the EU population, and the Pakistani government officials, but also lodged in the collective right of farmers on seed. This position rests on the historical collection and development of the genetic resources of millions of plant varieties abundantly present in the diverse ecosystems of the Earth by millions of small farmers across the continents through many millennia. Today, the likes of Monsanto are only able to develop their so called new seeds based on the germ-plasm collected by farmers, especially farmers of third world countries such as Pakistan. The Harapa Museum in Sahiwal is testament to the rich centuries old agrarian history of our country and the region. It is truly amazing that a seed from many thousands of years can be seen in the Museum. Given the cultural heritage of our country and our people, our farmers, why is our government allowing profit-driven seed corporations to implement new seed laws?

New technologies are only welcome if they come in the interest of the people; in the interest of our farmers; in the interest of increasing national self-reliance; in the interest of national and people’s sovereignty and indeed sustainable development.  It is to be hoped that the Pakistan Senate will keep these aspirations as their guiding principal when they sit down to discuss the potential benefit or harm of the draft Amended Seed Act 2014, whos function as a legal tool is to bring prosperity to the most productive sector of the country: the small and landless farmers of Pakistan.

The writer is an activist working with small and landless farmers in the country. She holds a doctorate in Social Pharmacy from the University of Minnesota, USA.

Azra Talat Sayeed @ azra.sayeed@gmail.com

The World Health Organization’s Report says Glyphosate in Monsanto’s Roundup Ready Herbicide is Carcinogenic!

The shocking statement from the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), an organ of the World Health Organization (WHO) that glysophate probably causes cancer in humans further verifies the concerns of the farmers organizations such as the Pakistan Kissan Mazdoor Tehreek.

DSC02596

According to IARC “Glyphosate is a broad-spectrum herbicide, currently with the highest production volumes of all herbicides. It is used in more than 750 different products for agriculture, forestry, urban, and home applications. Its use has increased sharply with the development of genetically modified glyphosate-resistant crop varieties. Glyphosate has been detected in air during spraying, in water, and in food.”

This herbicide is used in the Monsanto’s Roundup Ready which can be sprayed on genetically-engineered plants resistant to Glyphosate. This of course provides further food for thought to the Pakistan Senate as it in the process for approving the Pakistan Amended Seed Act 2014 passed by the National Assembly on March 16 last month.DSC02591

There have been recent concerns raised by the Director General, Environmental Protection Agency on the safety of GM seeds and crops in the country; similar concerns have also been voiced by the Foreign Office to the Climate Change Division stating that “GM seeds can be used as biological weapon of mass destruction to destroy Pakistan’s major crops such as potatoe, wheat, rice, corn, cotton and vegetables through modified viruses, bacteria, and other parasite.”

???????????????????????????????

Roots for Equity along with many other peoples’ organizations and farmers’ organizations has sent a letter to the Pakistan Senate early this month, highlighting the many political, environmental an economic issues pertaining to acceptance of genetic ally engineered seeds and crops.

DSC02600

The breaking news by WHO on further harm caused by the use of GE seeds and related technologies should be taken into grave consideration and help in rejecting the Amended Seed Act 2014, to be replaced by legislation which guards farmers seed sovereignty and national food sovereignty.

http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanonc/article/PIIS1470-2045(15)70134-8/fulltext

http://www.dawn.com/news/1175542/farmers-or-corporate-sovereignty

http://www.dawn.com/news/1173928/50-ngos-urge-senate-to-block-bill-on-seeds

http://www.dawn.com/news/1174415/minister-concerned-over-gm-crops-in-pakistan

http://www.dawn.com/news/1174330

http://www.dawn.com/news/1172653

http://www.dawn.com/news/1170209/farmers-most-affected-by-new-law-on-seeds

Pakistan Kissan Mazdoor Tehreek vows to continue its fight against the Amended Seed Act 2014

Pakistan Kissan Mazdoor Tehreek held its Sindh Provincial Assembly in Sukkur, Sindh. After the Assembly, a protest was staged against the Amended Seed Act 2014 which was recently passed by the National Assembly. The protest was attended by farmers from many districts in Sindh including Tando Mohammad Khan and Badin. PKMT’s Alo Bheel provincial coordinator stated that they were determined to fight against the draconian seed bill which against the collective rights of farmers on seeds. Zahoor Joya , the Provincial Coordinator, also stressed the need for a collective fight against the seed bill. Raja Mujeeb the National Coordinator PKMT said the Seed Bill not only hold the farmers hostage to foreign corporations and destroy the local seed industry.

Sukkur Protest Seed Act 23 March 2015

http://e.jang.com.pk/03-24-2015/karachi/page11.asp#;

 

Punjab Seed Act 2013: Press Release by PKMT

Below is a press release by Pakistan Kissan Mazdoor Tehreek (PKMT) on the Punjab Seed Act:

Press Release: Punjab Seed Act 2013

April 8, 2014

According to Secretary Agriculture Punjab, Muslim League (N) government in Punjab is to table the Punjab Seed Act 2013 soon. No doubt, the Punjab seed act would be very much in line with the KPK proposed seed act 2014 on January 15 this year which will only allow registered seed dealers and companies to undertake commercial activity for seeds.

As per the draft KPK Seed Act: No unregistered person or entity will be allowed to (a) conduct seed business; (b) sell, import, stock or exhibit for sale, barter or otherwise supply seed of any variety/hybrid or species which is not registered; (c) sell, import, stock or exhibit for sale, barter or otherwise supply seed of any variety/hybrid or species which is misbranded.

This series of seed legislation in the country seems to be on the demands of the agro-chemical transnational corporations such as Monsanto, Dow, Pioneer, Syngenta and others. The GAIN Report 2012 of the United States Department for Agriculture (USDA) Foreign Agricultural Service has highlighted the lack of a national seed and a plant breeders’ legislation pointing it as a “major impediment to investment in Pakistan by multinational seed companies.” According to the USDA GAIN Report, the lack of a Plant Breeders Seed Act is a violation of the Trade-related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement under the World Trade Organization (WTO). The TRIPs agreement allows big corporations and commercial plant breeders to hold patents over seeds which mean that farmers are dependent on monopolistic seed corporations.

The TRIPs agreement is considered one of the most anti-farmer international law for small and landless farmers of the third world countries such as Pakistan. It takes away the right of the farmers to save, exchange and earn a livelihood from seeds. It is indeed an irony, as today all patented seeds have genetic material which was freely shared by farmers over many generations through centuries.

Allowing GM crops legally on commercial basis will further allow the multinationals control over Pakistani seed markets. It will aggravate farmers vulnerability in agricultural production since cost of input will be beyond small farmers reach intensifying the food security situation in Pakistan. In addition, the biodiversity of the province is at very high risk from any introduction of GM crops.

The Pakistan Kissan Mazdoor Tehreek (PKMT) and Roots for Equity demand the members of Punjab assembly and the government of Punjab to propose a legislation which strengthen small and landless farmers giving them control over productive resources.

We demand that our provincial and federal government takes the lead in enacting legislation which protects the lives and livelihood of small farmers who are the majority in this province as well as the country!