MARDAN: Anjuman-i-Kashtkaran Khyber Pakhtunkwha has rejected the proposed tobacco eradication bill tabled in the provincial assembly and threatened to launch an agitation against the PTI-led provincial government.

Accompained by other office-bearers, Anjuman-i-Kashtkaran provincial president Abdul Haleem told a press conference here on Thursday that tobacco was a cash crop which was grown in Swabi, Mardan, Charsadda, Nowshera and other district of KP.

He said that millions of people of the province were linked with the tobacco business.

He claimed that the central government was collecting Rs48 billion in taxes on tobacco crop from KP. They said that ban on tobacco products would be tantamount to banning cultivation of tobacco crop. He asked the provincial government to hold consultations with representatives of tobacco growers prior to approval or passing of the bill from the provincial assembly.-Correspondent