MULTAN, April 13: The missing chairman of Anjuman Mazareen Punjab, Younas Iqbal, dramatically appeared at Chak 10/4L of the Okara military farms in the company of P-5 MPA Ashraf Sohna and urged the tenants to withdraw their demand for ownership of the state land they had been cultivating as tenants for nearly a century.
Mr Iqbal, AMP general secretary Dr Christopher John, and two other activists, Faheem and Sajid, were allegedly whisked away by some law-enforcement agents in Lahore a few days ago ahead of a tenants’ convention to be held at Okara on April 7.
The AMP leadership accused the Rangers of kidnapping the Anjuman office-bearers, and filed a petition for habeas corpus with the Lahore High Court. On the first hearing of the petition, the Lahore police in their reply informed the court that none of the ‘missing’ AMP leaders was wanted by them in any case, and there was no question of taking them into custody. Upon this, the court issued notice to Okara police to explain their position in the matter. The Okara police are likely to submit their reply on April 14 (today).
However, on Friday, Mr Iqbal surprised his family and AMP’s Okara leadership when he informed them by phone that he was at the Okara residence of federal defence minister Rao Sikandar Iqbal. He reportedly asked the local AMP leadership to visit him at the minister’s residence to discuss a package that the government would announce for the tenants on state-run agricultural and livestock farms if they gave up their struggle for proprietary rights.
The Okara AMP leadership refused to see him. However, his wife and a sister met him at the minister’s residence.
On Sunday, MPA Ashraf Sohna of PPPP-Parliamentarian escorted Mr Iqbal to Chak 10/4L. The military farm tenants told Dawn that he was scared stiff of the treatment meted out to him by his captors. He also told the people who had gathered to see him that he was continuously administered injections which made him lose consciousness.
He offered the official package to the tenants, but at the same time said feebly: “Do not rely on me. Decide your future course of action yourself.” Under the official package, the tenants were offered 12.5 acres of substitute land, a seven-year lease against their tenancy land and two out of 12 trees on the land in their possession.
The tenants however refused to withdraw their “Ownership or Death” slogan. Okara AMP secretary-general David Zahid told Dawn that the tenants had made it clear to Mr Iqbal and his captors that they would not share the wheat crop with the farm management at any cost. “Ours is not a leader-oriented movement as it is the voice of one million landless tenants on state farms in the Punjab,” he added.
Mr Iqbal was reportedly taken away by the MPA and his bodyguards.