SAHIWAL: Landless tenants of the Punjab Seed Corporation, Sahiwal, are demanding ownership rights to 250 acres of agricultural land currently leased to them in Chak 90/9-L and Chak 92/9-L. Their demand comes after the deputy commissioner, assistant commissioner, and revenue staff visited the farms last week to discuss their inclusion in the Sahiwal bypass road beautification project.

The demand was made by the All Punjab Anjuman Mazreen (AMP) in a press conference at a private place on Tuesday.

AMP President Mahar Ghulam Abbas, General Secretary Muhammad Ikhlaq and Press Secretary Zulfiqar Ali told the local media that their forefathers cultivated this barren land in 1914 when the British government allotted it to 26 families under the abadkari scheme, popularly known as patadari. They said that the fifth generation of original families had been cultivating the land and now those 26 families comprised 105 households with a population of nearly 3,000 in the same vicinity allocated to them by the Britishers.

Historical records show that after the Partition, the land was transferred to the Punjab Agriculture Department (Extension) and remained under its control until 1998, along with cultivation rights for the original families. In 1998, the Punjab Seed Corporation took the land on lease, continuing arrangements with the patadars on same terms and conditions.

Demand ownership rights for land cultivated by their families since 1914

Rizwan, in-charge Punjab Seed Corporation Sahiwal, confirmed to Dawn that the families and their descendants had been cultivating the land and receiving their due crop share since 1998.

Chaudhry Luqman of the AMP added that the tenants were still working the land under lease agreements. However, Muhammad Boota, president of the local chapter, said tensions escalated last week when the deputy commissioner, assistant commissioner, and revenue staff visited the farms to discuss their land inclusion in the Sahiwal bypass road beautification project.

Independent sources confirmed the fact. This alerted landless tenants that their land was again being taken a third time instead of its handover to them with ownership rights as promised.

He noted the Punjab government had already acquired 52 acres for the construction ofGhala Mandi and Sabzi Mandi in Sahiwal city.

The tenants said that if the government intended to purchase or repurpose the land for state projects, they should be given first rights of ownership as the original cultivators. They recalled staging a sit-in protest in front of the Punjab Assembly in 1998 where they faced police torture but secured a written agreement from the government, promising ownership rights. They further claimed that in 2010, the PML-N government in Punjab had again assured them of issuing ownership letters but later reneged, handing over 53 acres to the grain and vegetable market instead.

During the press conference, members ofthe AMP chanted slogans, rejecting eviction from land cultivated by their forefathers for over a century. They vowed to resist any move by the Punjab government to dispossess them and appealed to the chief minister, prime minister, and the field marshal to grant them ownership rights, stressing that the land sustains the livelihood of more than 3,000 tenants.

Published in Dawn, June 24th, 2026