THIS is apropos Aasim Sajjad Akhtar’s article ‘Old habits die hard’ (July 11). The matter about Okara farms has once again been agitated to malign the military. However, the whole case is flawed. How can a tenant claim ownership of any land on the basis that he has rented it for a long time? If the principle is accepted as true, then I am sure many would ask their tenants to vacate property or vice versa. Similarly, tenants would claim ownership of houses, shops, buildings and land all over Pakistan.

Are the Okara ‘military’ farm and tenants any different from those in other parts of Pakistan, say, Sindh?

I have never seen any NGO, newspaper or human rights activist fight the case for ‘haris’ of Sindh who for hundreds of years have tilled the lands of their landlords without even a whisper for ownership rights.

Dr Tahir M. Hayat
Lahore

Published in Dawn, July 13th, 2014