LAHORE: A Lahore High Court division bench on Monday suspended an earlier decision by a single judge bench, which had ruled against handing over 45,000 acres of land in three districts of Punjab to the army on a 20-year lease for Corporate Agriculture Farming (CAF) under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

The bench, consisting of Justice Ali Baqar Najafi and Justice Alia Neelum, passed the suspension order on intra-court appeals (ICAs) filed by the federal and the provincial governments.

On June 21, Justice Abid Hussain Chattha had struck down the land lease decision by the interim government of Punjab, saying that the agreement was beyond the mandate of both the caretakers and the military.

The Public Interest Law Association of Pakistan (Pilap), a not-for-profit legal organisation, and others had challenged the decision to hand over the land to the army.

Representing the Punjab government, an additional advocate general argued before the division bench that the impugned order, passed by the single bench, amounted to interference in the executive’s domain.

He said it was not the courts’ domain to regulate the government’s agriculture policies.

The law officer argued that an interim government was empowered under the law to complete an unfinished project or the policy of an elected government. He pointed out that the petitioners before the single bench were not an aggrieved party to the government’s decision.

He asked the bench to set aside the impugned judgement.

The two-judge bench suspended the single bench’s decision and issued notices to the respondents for a date to be fixed later by the office.

The army wanted ownership of land in Bhakkar, Khushab and Sahiwal for the purpose of corporate agriculture farming under the CPEC.

Justice Chattha had ruled that the caretaker government lacked constitutional and legal mandate to take any decision regarding the CAF initiative and policy in any manner whatsoever, in terms of Section 230 of the Elections Act 2017.

He said the act of the caretaker government to pick the thread from where it had been left by the previous elected government and proceed further was beyond its scope and mandate in terms of the Elections Act.

The judge observed the army’s claim that it had experience in development of barren land was not supported by any empirical or statistical data.

Justice Chattha had also decla­red that the armed forces, including the Pakistan Army, and its subordinate or attached departments, lacked constitutional and legal mandate to indulge and participate in the CAF initiative and policy.

He expressed hope that the federation of Pakistan, in concert with the Army, Navy and Air Force chiefs, would evaluate all activities and projects run by the armed forces.

“They must be ready to take remedial steps in order to ensure that the activities are in conformity with the constitutional and legal mandate of the armed forces,” Justice Chattha wrote in the impugned judgement.

Published in Dawn, July 18th, 2023