LAHORE, July 25: A delegation of various NGOs will meet the president and the Punjab governor in a couple of days to raise the state-land tenants’ issue, especially the police siege of seven villages in Peerowal, Khanewal.
This was decided at a meeting of more than a dozen NGOs’ representatives held here on Thursday. The meeting supported the tenants’ movement for ownership rights and decided to organize visits to farms and advance the movement at all levels.
The meeting also resolved to approach the higher courts to request them take a suo motu notice of the situation developing at military and state-run corporations’ farms in Khanewal, Pakpattan, Okara, Sahiwal, etc.
Anwar Javed Dogar, Yunus Iqbal, Dr Christopher John and Aqeela Naz, office-bearers of the Anjuman Mazaraeen, told the meeting that thousands of human lives were at risk because water, electricity and phone lines had been cut to the farms.
They feared a serious threat of starvation to over 20,000 souls in Peerowal who were under siege by a heavy contingent of police which were disallowing every entry or exit. A similar state was prevailing at four farms in Okara and Pakpattan districts.
They said authorities were threatening the use of violence to force them sign lease deeds, depriving them of their tenancy status.
The authorities were not holding any meaningful dialogue with the tenants cultivating the lands since three generations and were instead intimidating their leaders during talks, they alleged.
The last such talks were held on Wednesday night in which Khanewal DCO Ms Kausar told them that they would not be allowed to get any relief from courts and their children would die of hunger if they did not sign the contract documents, they alleged.
Wheat crop had been damaged while the cotton crop was facing the same fate due to stoppage of irrigation water by the government, they said, fearing starvation of tenants’ families in the next two to three months.
Those who were planning to go to nearby towns to earn livelihood for their families through other means were being disallowed to leave the villages, they said.
They told the meeting that a majority of government agencies controlling these farms had no legal ownership of the lands and these were also defying high court’s orders to restore water and power supply to the Peerowal area.
The NGOs which attended the meeting included the Shirkatgah, the South Asia Partnership, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, the AGHS, the Network for Consumers Protection, the Labour Party, the People’s Rights Movement, the Joint Action Forum, the Aurat Foundation, the Piler, the Seamorgh, the Women Action Forum, the Action Aid and the PNCC.