May 18, 2003	Sunday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 15, 1424

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LAHORE, May 17: There was no meeting point between the positions of the director-general of the Punjab Rangers and protagonists of tenants when the two sides got together here on Saturday to discuss the issue of tenancy rights of farmers at military farms in Okara.

The former declared that there was no issue as most farmers had signed contracts with the farm’s management while the latter maintained that these contracts, if they had been signed, were legally not tenable because the land in question belonged to the government of Punjab.

The meeting between the Rangers DG Maj-Gen Hussain Mehdi and human rights groups and NGOs was arranged by Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi a day earlier when the groups had called on him to intervene and save the tenants from the rigours of the siege of their villages and get women and children arrested for protesting for their rights released. However, no one had been released till late in the afternoon.

Besides taking up the tenants’ case, the participants from their side sought the lifting of heavy pickets around the villages of protesting tenants because of conditions prevailing for the besieged population of about 100,000. People had run out of food while no medicines or medical treatment was available to the injured, a participant told Dawn.

Maj-Gen Mehdi agreed to the removal of pickets provided protests were not revived. Like the release of prisoners, this had also not happened till late in the afternoon.

Participants arguing the tenants’ case included Dr Mubasher Hasan, Tariq Farooq of the Labour Party, Asma Jehangir, Hussain Naqi and Brig (retd) Rao Abid of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, lawyer Shahtaj and Farida Shaheed from the NGO Shirkat Gah.

The meeting with chief minister a day earlier was also attended by the president of the Anjuman Muzareen of Punjab, Shah Mohammad Daula, but he was kept out of Saturday’s discussions to ‘avoid the possibility of confrontation.’

Despite the opposing positions of the two sides, the meeting took place in a ‘cordial atmosphere.’