Daily Times

LAHORE Justice Sayyed Mazhar Ali Akbar Naqvi of Lahore High Court on Friday expressed serious concerns over the failure of the authorities concerned to submit a reply on a petition challenging the Pakistan (Amended) Seed Act 2015.

The judge remarked, “It is shocking that local farmers’ future has been put in jeopardy,” adding that the amended law could endanger national food security by making the country dependant on multinationals for genetically-modified seeds.

The judge warned that the plant breeder’s rights registry would be restrained from operating if a response was not submitted in the matter by June 22.

At an earlier hearing, the court had directed the Punjab government to produce the resolution passed by the provincial assembly calling upon the Centre to pass a plant breeders’ rights bill. Notices were issued to the federal government in which it was asked to file para-wise comments to the petition filed by Human Voice, an non-government organisation, challenging the Pakistan Amended Seed Act, 2015 for being in violation of farmers’ fundamental rights and passed at the behest of US-based multinational seed manufacturing companies.

The orders were not complied with as neither the copy of the resolution nor parawise comments were submitted till Friday.

Petitioner’s counsel Sheraz Zaka had submitted that the impugned seed act was passed without the approval of the cabinet, and under article 144 of the Constitution the amendment made in seed act could not have been passed by the federal legislature as it is a provincial subject. He argued that the impugned act would deprive farmers of their traditional farming practices and was meant to accommodate the demands of multinational corporations which were harmful for the environment, anti-competitive, and a threat for the national economy.

Advocate Zaka contended that the Parliament could not pass a bill of such a nature in the absence of resolutions passed by provincial legislatures. He submitted that the scope of his petition was wide and required the attention of the court, keeping into consideration the fact that the federal government had ratified the convention on biological diversity but still not taken any measures to protect traditional breeding practices.

During earlier hearings, Zaka had said that under the impugned law, farmers would be fined and imprisoned for preserving, selling and exchanging seeds, a centuries-old tradition. He said that it would adversely affect the agriculture sector of the country.

Zaka emphasised that the impugned law had made it mandatory for farmers to buy seeds from a licensed company or its agent and they had to do so every time they cultivate a new crop. He stated that this restriction would make farmers dependent on companies.

He said that it would be a huge injustice towards the millions of small and landless farmers whose food insecurity would be aggravated. He submitted that conditions required under the impugned Act would lead to increase in prices of agricultural products and a food security threat in future was likely to happen.

The counsel said that the experience of growing genetically modified (GM) crops, like Bt cotton, had been disastrous in the country but the government still intended to promote GM crops through the law. He added that many European countries had already banned genetically modified crops because of their adverse impact on environment and Pakistan should follow suit.

Zaka requested the court to set aside the amended Seed Act for being unconstitutional.

Published in Daily Times, June 9^th 2018.