RAWALPINDI, June 25: The political counsellor of the Swedish embassy has expressed concern over the state of affairs on the Okara military farms, and urged the government to resolve the matter in an impartial manner.
The Swedish diplomat, Dag Juhlin-Dannfeldt, who along with a retired army officer, Kamran Shafi, and a team of People’s Rights Movement, visited the military farms on Wednesday, was quoted as saying this in a statement issued by the People’s Rights Movement (PRM) after their return from the farms.
The delegation of the PRM, led by Asha Amirali, visited a number of villages on the Okara military farms and upon their return here recounted the miseries of over 150,000 residents of the area.
The diplomat said it was clear that the situation in Okara was extremely tense and serious human rights violations were being committed there. He said the state should acknowledge the fact that the overwhelming majority of tenants were unwilling to accept the contract system and that their right to tenancy was protected by the law.
He also said it was clear that people of the area had suffered due to lack of regular supplies of food and medicines.
Kamran Shafi also expressed concern over the manner in which the military was defying basic norms of justice to protect its own rent-seeking activity.
The delegation met a number of tenants and those residents of the villages who did not derive their livelihood from the disputed land.
The delegation was told that the Rangers had been trying to impose their will upon the tenants while none in the area wanted to accept the contract system aimed at relinquishing the tenancy status.
The tenants said that anyone visiting the area to study the situation was usually taken to the military farm headquarters to be briefed that everything “is well in the area and that tenants are paying cash rents.”
The villagers said that whenever visitors came to the area, the barricades and road blockades were relaxed in a bid to conceal the extent of harassment and intimidation being faced by the tenants.
