LAHORE, Oct 21: The Anjuman Mazareen Punjab (AMP) has alleged that the army is trying to get transferred stud farm lands in its name through underhand deals.

The AMP is a representative body of 28,000 tenants working on military farms in Okara, Renala, Lahore and Khanewal.

At a press conference here on Thursday, AMP Chairman Liaquat Ali and Secretary-General Mehr Abdul Sattar said the army was negotiating with the Punjab Board of Revenue for transfer of almost 24,000 acres in Okara, Renala and Lahore "in complete contravention of all legal and democratic norms".

Labour Party's Farooq Tariq and People's Rights Movement's Aasim Sajjad were also present.

The tenant leaders said initially the army had sought the land free of cost, but when the BoR refused citing legal problems, it offered Rs100,000 per acre. The BoR was so far resisting these requests, demanding the defence ministry to pay market rate and an additional 10 per cent for the purpose, they said.

The BoR had also demanded payment of over Rs900 million from the army authorities in old rents that had accrued over 60 years, they said.

The AMP leaders said under the law, occupants had the first right to purchase the land if the provincial government wanted to relinquish its ownership. They vowed to continue their four-year struggle for ownership rights and threatened to block roads if power tactics were used to evict them from the farms.

Total cost of the land at market rate is Rs60 billion.

Aasim Sajjad wondered that the army would spend this much amount out of defence budget just for cultivating a piece of land. He pledged to extend support to the cause of tenants and stage a sit-in, if necessitated, outside the parliament in this regard.

Farooq Tariq regretted that corporate culture was being promoted in armed forces. He said the Fauji Foundation was purchasing all state-run industrial units being privatized, while the army was directly purchasing cultivable lands. The institution had already purchased lands at Gwadar and in southern Punjab without any defence needs, he said.