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RAWALPINDI, May 31: Pakistan Army here on Saturday held the “miscreants” of Anjuman-e-Mazarain Punjab (AMP) responsible for turbulence at the Okara Military Farms, and said there was massive distortion of facts about the on-ground situation in the troubled farms.
This was stated by Director General Inter-Services Public Relations Maj-Gen Rashid Qureshi and Director General RV&FC Maj-Gen Mehmood, while briefing a group of journalists about the Okara situation.
Maj-Gen Mehmood told the briefing that 11 people, including some national leaders, have been identified to be patronising this movement for the sake of their vested interest. These people, he said, had now gained support of some of the non-government organizations.
He said the problem had been basically caused by the external element in the area, whereas the locals were largely peaceful and cooperative.
He said the people provoking disturbance were non-lessees and hence had got nothing to do with the situation.
He said AMP & Co., were exploiting the simple people through their strategy of “fear and hope”. The leaders, he said, were instilling in the minds of the lessees the fear of eviction and loss of rights under the Punjab Tenancy Act.
On the other hand, they are giving false hopes about getting them proprietary rights as a consequence of this movement, he added.
He said the AMP had collected around Rs8.6 million from the people, part of which was used for litigation and the rest is being utilized for running the protest movement. He said mercenaries were hired by the “miscreants” to create law and order situation and keep the situation alive.
The RV&FC boss asserted that the government planned no eviction from the farms except on disciplinary grounds.
Both Gen Rashid Qureshi and Gen Mehmood reiterated the government’s offer of a dialogue to solve the problem.
DEATHS: Gen Mehmood said so far there had been only 4 deaths in incidents related to the Okara Military Farms movement. None of which, he said, had been killed due to firing by the law enforcing agencies. One of the deceased, he said, had been hired for Rs150 to take part in the protest, and had been killed due to firing by the mob. He said all the four deceased were not the lessees of the military farms. They rejected reports that a dozen and a half people had been killed, as claimed by the activists running the campaign.
CONTRACT SYSTEM: The RV&FC director said decreasing share of government, lack of interest of the lessees, lower productivity and corruption both amongst the farmers and the civilian staff of the farms’ management forced the army to switch from the defunct Battai system to one of contract.
He said 1,350 acres of land had been sublet by the lessees, due to loss of their interest.
However, he contended, the new system had begun to pay dividends as those shifting to contract system had started to work with a fresh resolve. Prior to this, he said, there were only 3 tubewell, but now there are 398 Peter Engine pumps on the farms, which was indicative of improvement in the situation.
ACCEPTABILITY: Initially 324 lessees, out of a total 1,323, accepted the contract system. The remaining, after being misled by the AMP leaders, refused to accept the new system, he said.
Nevertheless, he said, the lessees were making payments and so far over Rs14.5 million had been recovered as against an expected receipt of Rs49.7 million from the Okara and Renala farms.
The situation at Renala farms, he said, was fully peaceful. Multan farms, he said, had also satisfactorily shifted to the new system.
He said several apparently non-cooperating lessees had held under-cover meetings with the farms’ management and assured them of their cooperation. They, he said, had informed us that the AMP activists were forcing the people not to cooperate, and were threatening them with dire consequences.
LEGAL POSITION: The lessees, Gen Mehmood said, themselves first approached the lower courts from where their case was dismissed, and then they moved the Lahore High Court. He quoted the LHC to have observed in its judgment: “The petitioners are in possession of the property without any lawful basis. If they want to stay on land, they have to adhere to the revised policy of the ministry of defence and pay rent in cash.”
SOCIAL ACTION PROGRAMME: He said on the instructions of President Musharraf the lease rates approved by the board had been slashed by 1/3rd and are 66 per cent lesser than the existing market rates.
Besides, he said, under the SAP for the military farms tenants, “there are plans” to lease out the land to the sitting lessees; enhance the lease period to 3-5 years as against one year under the defunct Battai system; steps for qualitatively improving the lives of the farmers and giving proprietary rights for a 10 marlas plot for construction of residential unit for the farmers.
