MULTAN, July 7: The Anjuman-i-Mazareen Punjab has threatened that they will boycott the ongoing talks with the government if police do not end siege to Peerowal farms.

An executive committee meeting of the AMP was held in Okara on Sunday at the central office of the Anjuman under the chairmanship of its president, Chaudhry Abdul Jabbar. The meeting was attended by tenants and representatives of all the 21 state-managed agricultural and livestock farms of Punjab besides the representatives of the People’s Rights Movement.

At the meeting, the tenant leaders discussed the ongoing negotiations with the government over their demand of ownership rights against the lands under tenancies.

The meeting unanimously rejected the government proposals that tenants should either get alternative lands in far-off districts or sign a lease deed of five to seven years. The participants said the government wanted to change the status of tenants of contract workers by forcing them to sign the lease for a short period.

The meeting reiterated what it said principle stand on the issue of ownership rights. It was said that the government wanted to evict tenants from the lands which they had been cultivating for nearly a century and later on award the vacated lands to the corporate firms. They vowed to resist any attempt to dislodge them.

Expressing concern over the situation at Peerowal farms, the meeting condemned the joint efforts by the Punjab Seed Corporation and the police to uproot self-sown cotton of tenants there. It was said the government action was against the orders of the Lahore High Court that had granted status quo to the Peerowal tenants against any government action.

The meeting demanded early withdrawal of police contingent from Peerowal and restoration of amenities like electricity, telephone service and irrigation water to tenants’ villages.

Meanwhile, talks between the government and the tenants proved successful in Peerowal over the release of two PSC officials held captive by the tenants when they started razing cotton crop on Saturday.

The tenants were demanding release of their 11 leaders in exchange of the captive PSC drivers, Afzal and Samuel. The authorities expressed their inability to release Mir Ameer, Hafeezullah Niazi, Khan Muhammad Taheem and Faqir Muhammad saying cases had been registered against them and now they had to apply to the court for bail. While, rest of the seven detained were released by the police. The tenants, therefore, released their captives late on Saturday night.

Reports reached here from Peerowal revealed that the number of police personnel deployed at the farms was less on Sunday as compared to their gathering during the last two weeks until Saturday.

However, the amenities of life have yet to be restored.