ISLAMABAD, Jan 10: The tenant farmers, living on military farms in Punjab, have demanded ownership rights to the land they have been cultivating for the last 100 years.

The demand was made by Anjuman-i-Mazarein Punjab (AMP), a representative organization of the tenant farmers, at a media briefing, organized by the People’s Rights Movement on Thursday.

The AMP secretary-general, Yunas Iqbal, speaking on the occasion, said these farmers were settled on these lands by the British in 1913 to provide load-carrying animals to its army. They were promised to be given ownership rights to the lands, but it was never realized.

After the partition, the government of Pakistan offered them same terms and conditions that had been offered by the British.

“We, the 900,000 tenants farmers working across the province on army farms, should be given the ownership rights as announced by President General Pervez Musharraf”, Mr Iqbal demanded. the local military authorities, he said, were forcing them to sign new contracts, which, he termed, was illegal.

Quoting a recent incident in this regard, he said, Colonel Mohammad Ali, deputy director of Renala Khurd remount farm, Okara, forcibly removed two tenants farmers from their land last Monday. The army personnel in the process also opened fire on unarmed peasants and injured seven people, he added.

Around 15,000 farmers are living on such farms in Okara District. These farms, though managed by the military, are owned by the revenue department of Punjab government, the AMP secretary-general said.

Since colonial era, these farmers have been giving over over half of their produce, much of the livestock out put, and a cash rent to local authorities, he maintained.

The military authorities in Okara and other districts of the province are pressurizing the tenant farmers to sign annual agreement — a demand that can only be made by the Punjab government, Mr Iqbal said.

Although, the AMP has made repeated offers to the local authorities to pay for the land they have been cultivating to obtain ownership rights, it has not received any positive response. Instead, the authorities are intimidating the organization and its office bearers, he alleged.

He requested General Pervez Musharraf to take personal interest in the issue and provide relief to a large number of tenant farmers.