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| May 17, 2003 | Saturday | Rabi-ul-Awwal 14, 1424 |
Meeting on tenants issue inconclusive
LAHORE, May 16: A meeting between Punjab Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi and representatives of tenants of military farms in Okara, human rights groups and some NGOs that have been supporting a fair and just settlement of the stand-off between tenants and Rangers failed to produce any solution of the issue on Friday.
However, agreement was reached on arranging another meeting between the director-general of Rangers, Punjab, and the groups on Saturday.
While the conflict is between military authorities and tenants tilling the land for over a century, the meeting with the chief minister was sought by these groups because the lands occupied by the management of military farms belong to the Punjab government.
But provincial authorities appear helpless in the face of the Ranger’s campaign to force the tenants to give up tenancy and sign up as contractors. The tenants have refused to abandon their inherited and present status and have been campaigning for their rights.
The situation took an ugly turn on May 5 when the tenants organized a demonstration that was met with severe action on the part of the authorities. According to already published reports and the latest information, at least five persons died and 39 were injured as a result of the action.
The chief minister was asked by representatives to help in securing a permanent settlement of the issue, get the recently arrested women and children released and set up a judicial commission to probe into the matter and have it resolved.
Human rights and NGO workers who visited the tenants last week report a state of siege against 18 chaks with a population of about 100,000. The injured are not receiving medical aid and food shortage has become acute in the encircled villages, they say.
Entry to the villages has been blocked by Rangers that have set up pickets crisscrossing the entire area.
They had to travel surreptitiously during the night for access to the tenants.
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