The NWFP President Mr Asad Qaiser, Mr Javaid Iqbal Yousafzai and Mr Fazl-e-Rabi hosted a working lunch meeting for Ms Rabia Zia (PTI UK) in Swabi on Dec 26 2009.

The NWFP president had invited all the local office bearers as well as social workers and the media. The NWFP / Swabi team is very motivated and are aware of the issues at the union / district level. Ms Zia discussed issues relating to small farmers. The main agriculture crop in Swabi is tobacco on which the small farmers are facing punitive double taxation. The farmers are not able to get fertiliser and seeds either. Unless the government provides incentives including small loans, fertilizer, seeds etc to small farmers, more and more farmers will move away from agriculture.

The other issue faced by the people of Swabi is the lack of funding allocated to Swabi District hospital - the total budget allocated to this hospital for purchase of medical equipment for the whole year is PKR 1000 - which is a pittance.

In contrast to the Islamabad-Peshawar motorway, the condition of roads after the Swabi interchange is appalling. This clearly shows lack of investment in the infrastructure by the government in Swabi.

PTI is working on plans to address the above issues especially as these issues are common across many remote regions in Pakistan. PTI will work to stop the exploitation of small/landless farmers across Pakistan.

The meeting concluded with a prayer led by Mr Fazl-e- Rabi for the future of Pakistan, the future of PTI and the health and long life of Chairman Imran Khan.

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