ISLAMABAD, July 23: The Board of Investment (BOI) on Sunday confirmed that the Punjab government was in the process of acquiring 1200 acres of (agricultural) land in Sheikhupura district for a Mercedes assembly plant.

It, however, said that the land acquisition was in keeping with the requirement of industry and its future expansion, including vehicle testing track, vendor industries, warehouse facilities and a residential colony with ancillary facilities for employees. “There is no intention to establish a racing track, a golf course or a hotel as mentioned in the write-up (Dawn’s Saturday issue),” it said.

The BOI also claimed that the Land Acquisition Act 1894 did not “prohibit acquisition of land for any public purpose or a company” in any locality and that “the affected people would be given fair compensation for any land that may be acquired for the project”.

The BOI had been approached by Dawn for its point of view on the project before the report was published.

The board did not say at that time that a hotel, golf course and racing track were not part of the project. It did not explain on Sunday why BOI Minister Umar Ghumman and the Coastal Limited were quoting different investment figures of $5.85 billion and $1 billion.

The District Officer (Revenue) Sheikhupura in a judgement had cited one of the objections as: “That the area under acquisition was beyond the actual needs of the project in so far as it contains a golf course (57 acres), hotel (50.5 acres), a race track (478 acres and an area of 98.7 acres for future expansion”.

And he wrote in response: “It goes without saying that this leviathan project is being undertaken as a joint venture in collaboration with Mercedes, a foreign company of international fame. Definitely the project will run by and under the supervision of a large number of foreigners, resident and non-resident. The spot is away from the big city rendering it absolutely necessary to cater for the mandatory living requirements in one camp”.

It has not been explained as to why the company itself wants land not more than 600 acres and the BOI puts it at 1,200 acres. The BOI also did not explain why agricultural land was chosen for the industrial unit in a province where tens of thousands of barren or uncultivable land is in abundance.

The report was based on documentary evidence and all parties had been consulted before it was published.