LAHORE, Aug 8: The military farms management has claimed that a group with a vested interest is misleading the tenants on Okara farms and the people at large by issuing “slanderous and irresponsible” statements in the press as part of a “consistent and deliberate campaign to malign the Armed Forces”.

In a rejoinder to Asma Jehangir’s press conference, a spokesman for the military farms said: “A malicious and concocted story is fabricated after every few days to create an impression that suits their foreign masters who then pour in finances to nurse these elements so that they continue to sow discord among the peaceful tenants and tarnish the image of the government and the Armed Forces of the country.

“While Asma Jehangir and her cohorts in the so-called Anjuman-i-Mazareen —- which has hardly any tenant in its organization and keeps changing every month —- talk about law and justice, they have no respect for law of the land because their case was rejected by the Lahore High Court. A subsequent appeal filed by these elements was also dismissed. This should have settled the matter.”

About the tenants’ dismissal from service, it was asked in the press release, how could the farms management dismiss a tenant? There is a contract between tenants and the management, which can be terminated if there is a serious breach of the terms and conditions laid down in it.

The claim that the military farms management had forced someone to divorce his wife was laughable, the press release said. “Divorce is a personal issue and the farms management has no concern whatsoever with such a matter.”

The spokesman said that it had already been clarified that the grant of rights to establish residential accommodation or a model village was already in the process at the GHQ.