Anjuman-e-Kashtakaran Khyber Pakhtunkhwa President Haji Naimat Shah Roghani has requested that tobacco be removed from narcotics list and designated as a crop, reports The News.

Shah Roghani said the Pakistan Tobacco Board should be handed over to the province Khyber Pakhtunkhwa because it produces 97 per cent of tobacco and provides excise duty of PKR 200 billion (USD 1.28 billion) as well as other taxes. These taxes are a huge burden for farmers who rely on tobacco crops as a main source of income. According to The News, Shah Roghani stated that the farmers and their families work hard to grow tobacco and that the income gained barely finances their basic needs.
He alleges that multinationals were selling synthetic fertilisers and fuel wood to farmers at higher prices and demands that the government step in and protect the tobacco farmers.