KARACHI: Leaders of the Sindh Hari Tehreek (SHT), a movement for the rights and welfare of farmers, peasants and tillers of the province, have strongly condemned handing over of around 1.3 million acres of Sindh’s land to foreign investors in the name of corporate farming, and demanded shelving of all major projects like Bahria Town, Zulfi-karabad and DHA City.

They were speaking at a conference during SHT workers’ convention in Shahpur Chakar town of Sanghar district on Saturday.

According to a press release sent to the media, a number of resolutions were adopted at the conference titled: ‘Stop auctioning of Sindh lands in the name of corporate agricultural farming’.

One of the resolutions stressed that instead of giving them away to local and foreign investors, the farmlands should be allotted to landless peasants.

It alleged that the Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC) had been set up to “loot the lands and resources of nations [Pakistan’s major linguistic entities], especially Sindh”. It felt that by handing over around 1.3 million acres of Sindh’s land to the SIFC in the name of corporate agricultural farming, “an initial attempt has been made to take away the historic land from the Sindhi nations”.

The conference also demanded reversal of the decision to hand over Pakistan Steel mills’ land worth trillions of rupees to the federal government.

Another resolution described the caretaker government’s act of amending the Indus River System Authority (Irsa) Act as being in conflict of the Article 154 and 155 of the Constitution, and demanded its withdrawal. It said Irsa should be independent and autonomous institution and not a federally-controlled one.

The conference said that any dams over the Indus and canals offtaking from it were a threat to the existence of the river and, as such, all these dams and canals must be dismantled immediately.

Through another resolution, the SHT called for a fair price to be paid to farmers for their produce and legal action against profiteers and dishonest traders. It deplored that growers had been subjected to ‘economic murder’ by denying adequate rates for their crops.

It also stressed that the ‘mafia’ involved in the sale/supply of fake fertilisers, seeds and pesticides should be dealt with as per the relevant laws.

The SHT conference underlined the need for Hari Tribunals, each headed by a district and sessions judge, to be set up in all districts to settle farmers’ cases. Special courts should also be put in place to address farmer’s issues, it added.

The participants called for the establishment of villages on state-owned lands under the Gothabad Scheme and said these villages should have all basic facilities, including roads, electricity and clean drinking water, besides health and education facilities.

Steps should be taken to ensure availability of irrigation water to the lower riparian regions and immediate dismantling of all Illegal watercourses laid by influential landowners, ministers and advisers, it said, adding that embankments of the river and banks of canals should be strengthened.

The other resolutions adopted at the conference demanded a fresh and fair census in Sindh, restoration of complete and lasting peace in the gang-infested upper Sindh districts, and a review of concurrent list to revert those portfolios to provinces which had been taken over by the federation under the 18th Constitutional Amen-dment.

Published in Dawn, March 10th, 2024