LAHORE, April 8: The ARD and the Labour Party have condemned the bar on their leaders’ participation in an Anjuman Mazareen Punjab convention in Okara on Monday.

Speaking at a press conference here on Tuesday, leaders of the two parties said that preventing politicians’ participation in a farmers’ meeting was against all moral and democratic values.

They claimed that more than 10,000 farmers had attended the convention in an Okara Chak.

Condemning the “kidnapping” of Anjuman leaders Younas Iqbal, Faheem, Sajid Baloch and Dr Christopher John by law-enforcement agents on April 3, they said the Lahore police had expressed their ignorance about the incident before the Lahore High Court chief justice here on Tuesday.

Extending support to the movement of landless tenants, they said all tenants should be allotted state land free of cost.

Criticizing the prime minister for stating that there was no need for agriculture reforms, they said all state land in the country must be distributed among landless farmers free of cost.