June 9, 2003	Monday	Rabi-us-Sani 8, 1424

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ISLAMABAD, June 8: Anjuman Mazarain Punjab (AMP) has asked the Supreme Court Bar Association to pass a resolution supporting the landless tenants’ ongoing movement for ownership rights of Okara farms.

A delegation of the AMP and the People’s Rights Movement (PRM) on Sunday met the bar president, Hamid Khan, to express solidarity with the pro-democracy struggle of the lawyers, and to seek support for the landless community of the Okara farms.

The delegation, led by AMP President Khushi Dola, told the bar president that the Lahore High Court Bar Association and the Punjab Bar Council had already passed resolutions in favour of the tenants, demanding removal of the Rangers from Okara military farms, release of the jailed AMP activists and withdrawal of all criminal cases against them.

The delegates said the Rawalpindi bar and other bar councils across the Punjab were also likely to take up the issue soon.

Khushi Dola also made a special request to the bar president asking him to constitute a committee which could visit the farms.

He was of the view that such a visit would not only help raise the morale of tenants, but also link the struggle of the lawyers against the LFO and “military dictatorship” with the struggle of common people.

“The AMP activists will attend the convention being convened on Monday by the lawyers in Islamabad against the LFO and undemocratic attitude and practice of the military establishment,” he said.

The bar president said the AMP’s role had been unprecedented and rest of the democratic forces should support the tenants’ movement.

He also welcomed the AMP’s decision to participate in the activities of the lawyers so that a larger political movement against “dictatorship” could be launched in the country.

Asha Amirali of the PRM said Armed Forces were now claiming the land in Okara on the basis of ordinances that referred to the government’s right to hold onto any piece of land for protection of the “national interest”.