May 26, 2006	Friday	Rabi-us-Sani 27, 1427

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ISLAMABAD, May 25: The National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Agriculture on Thursday urged the government to ban sale of farmland to housing societies, terming it a dangerous trend that was hurting domestic agricultural productivity.

“Now a property dealer wants to build a Taj Mahal on agricultural land in Lahore, a job once performed by the Mughal kings. The land mafia has procured thousands of acres of farmland around Islamabad, Rawalpindi and Lahore and (the trend is) now spreading to Multan and other cities. They must be stopped,” said ruling PML’s Riaz Pirzada.

Headed by PML’s Makhdoom Syed Alam Anwar, the committee observed that a law had been enacted during the tenure of late Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, prohibiting the sale of agricultural land to housing societies. However, the law was not being implemented.

The committee called for reviving and re-implementing the same law, which would empower the federal and provincial agricultural ministries to take action against housing societies flouting the ban.

The standing committee was informed that land grabbers had started procuring agricultural land in Sadiqabad, Mailsi and Multan and it was feared that in future a big chunk of the country’s agricultural land would be in the hands of property dealers.

It also expressed concerns over the inability of provincial governments to stop establishment of sugar mills in cotton zones, violating the government ban. It observed that the sugar cartel had installed mills in Dera Ismail Khan and Bahawalpur areas, flouting the ban.

Secretary of the ministry of food, agriculture and livestock Ismael Qureshi said that the current production capacity of sugar mills was double the total sugarcane production in the country.

The committee also pointed out that the sugar cartel had also started the dangerous trend of sowing sugarcane in cotton zones. Sugarcane was a water intensive crop and its cultivation could lead to a drought-like situation in cotton zones that would hurt farmers as well as the country’s economy, which was dependent on cotton export.

The committee urged the government to ensure a ban on the installation of sugar mills in the Chashma Right Bank Canal area besides taking action against illegal ones.