ISLAMABAD, Dec 13: The Anjuman Mazarain Punjab (AMP), a representative organization of nearly one million landless tenants on state land in the Punjab, has asked the prime minister, Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali, to grant them ownership rights.

Speaking at a press conference here on Friday, the AMP office-bearers made it clear that they would keep on protesting until the federal government fulfilled their demand of granting ownership rights of the land which they had been tilling for the last one century. The chairman AMP, Okara, Ghani Javed, said for the last one hundred years they had been cultivating land, first for the British government and later for the Pakistan army.

“The landless tenants of these military farms are living a pitiable life as 90 per cent of their production is taken away by the military people,” he said.

The chairperson of AMP Khanewal, Faizan Bibi, said AMP’s commitment to securing ownership rights of the 68,000 acres of state land across the province tilled by tenants remained steadfast. It is hoped that the new government will be more responsive to the AMP’s demands, and in case the tenants are denied their rights, they will continue to struggle with the same conviction that has been apparent in the tenant struggle to date, Faizan Bibi said.

Unfortunately, the indications are that the government does not intend to acknowledge the demands of the AMP and persists with its policy of stripping tenancy status and eventually displacing the tenants, she said.

There is now a direct proof to this effect. A memo sent out by the Board of Revenue in November 2002 clearly states that all tenants of Pirowal Seed Farms are to be “moved out”, Abdul Majid Jat, executive member, AMP Khanewal, said.