Building of urban, rural divide.

Byline: NUSRAT JAVEED

On the fourth day of general discussion on budgetary proposals most speeches, delivered from both sides of the house, seemed to have reached 'also-ran' stage. Although yawn-inducing, the given speeches did project certain themes, set to deepen the political divide in our country. Parallel to growing tensions on the political front, we could also smell the building of urban/rural divide.

Syed Navid Qamar, a very experienced parliamentarian from the PPP, set the tone for it. He hails from an established family of Sindh, cynically perceived speaking for 'big landlords' only. He is academically trained to deal with complex issues of modern economics and at least twice helped the previous PPP governments to clearly define its fiscal priorities.

Being a contemplative type, he consumed most of his time to insist and plead that in post-COVID Pakistan, we must forget throwing money for reviving the so-called 'industrial sector' in the name of 'stimulus'. Our resources should rather be fully utilized to resurrect the agricultural potential of Pakistan. With the slogan of 'grow yourself what you want to eat,' the policy planners should start developing high-yield seeds and find means to provide farmers with affordable inputs, like fertilizer etc.

Of late, most of Pakistanis seem to have woken up to ruthless profit making by the 'Sugar Mafia.' The focus on sugar producers, however, kept us ignorant about the magnitude of multi-prone damages, the water gulping crops of sugar cane has caused to our fertile lands and historic patterns of agricultural production.

Pakistan, for example, was once considered a major producer of textile-related products. The gradual shift to sugarcane growing eventually brought us to a point where we are forced to import high-quality cotton to spin cloth required for textile industry, attracting the high-end markets in a very competitive world.

The 'addiction' to sow nothing but sugarcane has also crippled our imagination to seek varieties of vegetables and fruits, which can bring more profit even to owners of relatively small farms.

Many PTI members, representing farmers, fully endorsed his position. But ruling party's regulators of the parliamentary business has visibly passed on a set of 'taking points' to their members. These points were devoted to promote the narrative that under the 'honest and visionary leadership' of Imran Khan Pakistan has pleasantly surprised the world by extremely successful...