ISLAMABAD, May 31: The People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPP) said on Saturday it was shocked over the treatment meted out to the tenants of the Okara military farm.

PPP Senator Farhatullah Babar in a press statement asked the government to give ownership rights to the tenants on military farms as was promised by President Gen Pervez Musharraf during his referendum campaign.

“The PPP is deeply saddened and concerned that as the hunger strike by the tenants enters the 16th day in Islamabad, the Rangers and local administration have correspondingly stepped up the punitive and coercive measures against the farmers,” he added.

The military high command should recognize the changing ground realities and urgently intervene with a view to prevent a clash with the poor people, the PPP leader said.

He said that the party deplored that the Rangers had declared the area out of bounds for outsiders and put up barricades along the routes.

The tenants had complained that not only their villages had been besieged but a cannon had also been at the entrance of Chak No. 15 to frighten the poor peasants with the might of the state, Mr Babar said.

He said cannons bought at public expense were meant for defending the country against foreign aggression and not for terrorizing own people.

The PPP reiterates the position that the provincial governments own army land in the provinces.

He said the PPP had been trying to give ownership rights to the tenants on the state lands for more than a decade.

Benazir Bhutto, assisted by the then minister of agriculture, Rao Sikander Ali, set in motion the hand over of the military lands to the tenant farmers. However, vested interests in the army high command had thwarted every attempt to hand over the land to the tenants, he claimed.

He said the party deplored that the promise made by President Musharraf during referendum about the ownership rights had proved to be hollow and bogus as the referendum itself.