07 March 2005	Monday	25 Muharram 1426

MULTAN, March 6: Hundreds of tenants of the state-run farms in the province pledged at the annual convention of the Anjuman Mazareen Punjab on Sunday to continue their struggle for ownership rights against the lands under their tenancy.

The convention was organized by the AMP's Khanewal chapter on Peerowal farms of the Punjab Seed Corporation. Delegations of the tenants from various state-owned agricultural and livestock farms across the province attended the moot.

Local and national leaders of various political parties were also there to express solidarity with the tenants. Besides, right activists turned up in a large number.

The AMP leaders said they and their ancestors had been cultivating the lands under their tenancy for nearly a century and now the farm managements wanted to change their status from tenants to lessees. "We will prefer to die while struggling for ownership rights instead of succumbing to the pressure for signing the lease deeds," they avowed.

They demanded ownership rights for the lands under their cultivation, withdrawal of all the fabricated cases registered against them, arrest of the killers of tenants from Okara, Renala Khurd and Peerowal, rehabilitation of all the evicted tenants of the state-run agricultural and livestock farms and reinstatement of all those who were dismissed from government service only because they were relatives of the AMP activists.

Pakistan National Workers Party's chief Abid Hasan Minto traced the history and evolution of the Kissan Movement in the country since its birth in 1947. He emphasized the need for land reforms to end the prevailing feudal system in Pakistan.

He said ownership of lands at the time of partition in the areas that formed Pakistan was with Sardars and Khans. Later, civil and military bureaucracy also aspired to become landlords and large tracts of state lands were allotted to them. He said now the army in Pakistan had become an enterprise that controlled almost half of the country's economic activity. "They are in every income generation venture under the sun," he added.

Pakistan Seraiki Party's chief Taj Muhammad Langah appreciated role of women in the AMP movement, saying this was the distinctive feature of the tenants' struggle for their right that their whole families were involved with them.

He urged the AMP leadership to take part in the electoral process at all the tiers from local bodies to the parliament rather than backing up those who forgot them after winning with their support.

He underlined the need for fixing the maximum limit of the landholdings in order to end rotten feudal system from the country and demanded cancellation of all the lands allotted to the military personnel. "They do not know how to cultivate as the growers do not know how to operate artillery," he remarked.