LAHORE: Troubled at military farms’ tenants threat of April 17 protest outside the Punjab Assembly, the provincial government convened a meeting of tenants leaders and officers concerned on Monday to resolve the formers’ issues and get the likely protest cancelled.

The tenants, however, declined to call off the strike until removal of Okara district police officer (DPO) who, they alleged, had become a party to the dispute and was resorting to illegal arrests and registration of cases, a representative of the protesters told Dawn.

The meeting was held at the Board of Revenue office here which was chaired by Zakat and Usher Minister Malik Nadeem Kamran.

The participants included MNA Nadeem Abbas Rabaira, secretaries of agriculture and livestock, the Seed Corporation managing director, Sahiwal and Multan commissioners, Multan regional police officers, district coordination officers of Multan, Khanewal, Sargodha, Okara and Sahiwal, and the Okara DPO.

The tenants were represented by Ghulam Abbas Sial, Qazi Saleem, Wazeer Sial, Liaquat Chairman and others.

Police authorities said that Anjuman Mazareen Punjab (AMP) leader Mehr Abdul Sattar was wanted in 16 cases of timber theft and rustling.

Mr Jhakkar, another AMP elder, was wanted in 121 cases. The AMP claims Mr Sattar did not join the meeting for fear of his arrest as Mr Jhakkar was taken into custody one month ago

and alleges that some of the cases were registered against him after his arrest.

MNA Rabaira invited the tenants to come up with a list of cases on Tuesday (today) they claimed to be false, Sial said.

The tenant said the minister assured them the Okara DPO had been relieved of the task of handling the tenants’ issue and that the regional police officer would monitor the situation to ensure fairness.

But this did not satisfy the tenants who refused to call off the protest until the removal of the DPO, Sial said. He added a meeting of the AMP held late on Monday also decided to write to Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif reminding him his promises regarding giving ownership rights to the tenants and seeking an end to the “police operation” against them.

Published in Dawn, April 14th, 2015

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