LAHORE: More than 50 organisations representing farmers, workers, women, youth, civil society, and human rights groups have called on the Punjab government to immediately withdraw eviction notices issued to tenant farmers (mazareen) in Sahiwal, grant them ownership rights over the lands they have been cultivating for generations, and halt all attempts to dispossess farming communities under the guise of corporate farming and development projects.

Addressing a joint press conference here on Wednesday, Pakistan Kissan Rabita Committee President Tariq Mahmood, General Secretary Riffat Maqsood, Farooq Tariq, Anjuman Mazareen Punjab President Mehr Ghulam Abbas, Iram Kashif of the Women Action Forum and others demanded immediate withdrawal of the eviction notices, recognition of tenant farmers’ ownership rights, and an end to attempts aimed at acquiring agricultural land for corporate farming and housing schemes.

They emphasised that protecting the rights of tenant farmers was not merely an agricultural issue but a matter of social justice, democracy, and human rights. They urged the government to adopt an immediate, fair, and sustainable solution.

Mehr Abbas said that 105 families would be hit by eviction notices issued to tenants of village 9-L (90/92) Sahiwal only as 250 acres of agricultural land in the village had been continuously cultivated by them since 1914. He stated that the deputy commissioner and others recently visited the village, marked the land with red flags, and informed the residents that it would soon be vacated under the Green Pakistan Initiative and the proposed Ashiana Housing Scheme.

Tariq Mahmood said that these actions amount to the displacement of entire communities that have cultivated, protected, and developed these lands over generations.

Riffat Maqsood criticised the policies that transfer fertile agricultural land to corporate projects, foreign companies, and housing schemes in the name of development.

Farooq Tariq stressed that development cannot come at the cost of dispossessing those who have nurtured and cultivated the land for generations.

Iram Kashif highlighted that women and children suffer the most from forced evictions. She called upon the government to recognise the historical, legal, and moral rights of tenant farmers by transferring ownership of the land to them and ensuring that no development project proceeds without transparent consultation, full compliance with legal requirements, and the free, prior, and informed consent of affected communities.

Published in Dawn, July 2nd, 2026