SWABI: Tobacco growers led by Jamaat-iIslami`s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief Mushtaq Ahmad Khan held a protest march here on Friday against the Pakistan Tobacco Board (PTB) and tobacco purchasing companies for not offering reasonable price of their crop.

The farmers and JI leaders gathered at Jaganat here on Friday and later held a march to the companies` purchasing centres while chanting slogans against the buyers and PTB officials.

The protest was organised by Kisan Board (KB), a JI`s farmers wing. Leaders of farmers unions and local government representatives also joined the march.

Mr Khan said that tobacco was the only cash crop cultivated in the district and no one wouldbe allowed to harm the interests of local cultivators. `We have the right to ask about the aim of PTB`s establishment. Its members must play their due role to protect the interests of tobacco farmers,` he said.

Through a unanimous resolution the participants of the march demanded of the companies to buy tobacco from farmers at reasonable prices keeping in view the cost of production.

The companies buy tobacco from the growers at Rs185 per kilogramme, but the cost of production is Rs250 per kg, claimed the farmers.

Through another resolution, they said that the tobacco cess development fund should not be given to members of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly. They said that under the prescribed rules the fund must be spent in tobacco growing districts on the development and welfare of growers.

The participants noted that PTB board of directors had not been nominated by the federal government due to unknown reasons since Jan 2014.

PM`S VISIT POSTPONED: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif`s visit to Tarbela Dam on Fridaywas postponed at the eleventh hour, officials said.

Wapda officials here said that the prime minister was due to visit Tarbela Dam on Friday to get a briefing on the dam`s fourth extension hydropower project and all arrangements in this regard had been completed. They said that that the premier had some important meetings scheduled in Islamabad and that could be the reason for postponement of the visit.

The sources said that PML-N leaders Zafar Mahmood and Pir Sabir Shah and Wapda chairman had reached the dam to receive the prime minister.

Mr Sharif had inaugurated work on Tarbela Dam`s fourth extension project on Feb 26, 2014.

Meanwhile, the district administration imposed Section 144 and asked the employees of the tehsil municipal administrations and government hospitals that they should not observe any holiday till Aug 16.

Deputy commissioner Matiullah Khan said that pillion riding and firing in the air had also been banned across the district f rom Aug 11 to Aug 16.