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| 04 August 2004 | Wednesday | 17 Jamadi-us-Saani 1425 |
PML-N for ownership rights to Okara farmers
ISLAMABAD, Aug 3: PML-N Central Information Secretary Muhammad Siddique-ul-Farooque has strongly condemned the arrest of Okara journalist Sarwar Mujahid and has demanded his immediate release.
In a statement issued here on Tuesday, he said Mujahid's only crime was raising voice for the rights of Okara Military Farms tenants, and exposing their brutal persecution by the farm authorities and rangers. His arrest is proof of the correctness of recent Human Rights Watch report on the farms, he added.
He said land in question was given to the military on lease, and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had granted ownership rights to the tenants after expiry of the lease but Musharraf government had been trying to illegally eject them.
He alleged the military rulers had already institutionalized land grabbing with acquiring large tracts and then distributing them among senior officers and generals at nominal price.
He said it was a known fact that an officer would get a plot for a small amount and then sell it for millions of rupees. Similarly, the military officers get agricultural land at a nominal price and then sell it for millions.
The PML-N leader said the recent 54-page HRW report was correct, and while detailing the atrocities committed against the farmers it had also called for intervention by the United Nations.
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