LAHORE: Human Rights Watch (HRW) has criticised the government for forcibly evicting thousands of farmers near Lahore for a massive infrastructure project called the Ravi Riverfront Urban Development Project and urged the authorities to enforce environmental protections and reform colonial-era laws that grant the government broad powers to acquire land for private as well as public use.

The Ravi Riverfront Urban Development Project was begun in August 2020 by then-prime minister, Imran Khan, who claimed it would address Lahore’s many problems—pollution, sewage, water, housing, and employment—while reviving its “lost glory.” The Rs5 trillion government project, covering more than 100,000 acres along the Ravi River in Punjab province, is among the largest infrastructure projects in Pakistan.

“The Punjab provincial authorities have harassed and threatened area farmers to deprive them of their homes and livelihoods,” said Patricia Gossman, associate Asia director at Human Rights Watch, in a statement on Monday.

“The authorities need to ensure that government projects minimize displacement and loss of income, but also minimize environmental harm and flooding risks.”

To advance the project, the government has acted on behalf of private developers to acquire the necessary property, 85 percent of which is agricultural land occupied by nearly one million farmers, labourers, and business owners.

The international rights body says affected farmers who have challenged the legality of the land seizures have faced intimidation and criminal charges brought by the Ravi Urban Development Authority (Ruda), provincial authorities, and project developers, even as these legal challenges remain pending in court.

Environmental groups have raised concerns that the project’s proposed changes to the flow of the Ravi River could significantly increase the risks of flooding. Pakistan’s Sindh province experienced catastrophic floods in mid-2022.

“Between February 1 and March 1, 2023, Human Rights Watch spoke to 14 farmers who said they had been evicted or threatened with eviction in Lahore since August 2020, as well as 8 lawyers, environmental rights activists, and journalists,” said Gossman.

Since 2020, according to her, the authorities have criminally charged more than 100 farmers with resisting or refusing to hand over the land they occupied. Accounts by farmers along with corroborating photos and video show evidence of intimidation, harassment, and use of force to evict farmers. The exact number of people affected or forcibly evicted has been difficult to determine, including by groups representing farmers.

In January 2022, the Lahore High Court ruled that the Ravi River project was unconstitutional. The court said that it violated domestic laws concerning the forcible acquisition of land, the process for compensating those displaced, and the project’s environmental impact assessment. The following month, the Supreme Court partially overruled the Lahore High Court decision and allowed the government to continue development only on the land it had already acquired and for which it had paid compensation.

Farmers and activists have alleged that despite the Supreme Court ruling, the authority has continued to seize land. In November 2022, they petitioned the High Court to have the Supreme Court’s decision enforced.

In October 2022, the authority filed criminal cases against at least nine farmers, claiming that they resisted handing over lands and houses that the government had legally acquired. The farmers have challenged this, saying that they had not consented to the acquisition and had received no compensation from the government.

One farmer told the HRW that his family had lived on the land for three generations, and the government was not only forcibly evicting them but also refusing to pay adequate compensation.

Published in Dawn, April 11th, 2023