KARACHI, June 10: The Okara Muzareen Yakjehti Committee has decided to stage a demonstration at the Karachi Press Club, on Friday afternoon, to protest against the victimization of Okara farmers by the law enforcement agencies (LEAs).

The decision was taken at a meeting of the committee held at PMA House on Tuesday. A large number of representatives of civil society organizations and political parties participated in the meeting to discuss the issue and to formulate a strategy to counter the highhandedness of LEAs.

A four-member delegation of the Anjuman Muzareen Punjab, representing the Okara farmers, comprising Mohammad Liaquat Ali, Aqeela Naz, Mohammad Tariq and Chaudhry Mohammad Aslam, which had come from Okara informed the audience about the atrocities being carried out by the LEAs against the farmers.

The committee also decided to send a 17-member delegation, comprising former MNA Ejaz Shafi of PML (N), Anis Haroon of the Aurat Foundation, Mairaj Mohammad Khan and others, to Okara to express solidarity with the victims.

On the occasion, various speakers giving a back ground of the issue said that the Punjab government had given the land to the Military Farms Okara (MFO) on a 20-year lease in 1913. The lease had expired in 1933, and had never been extended.

They said that now the MFO management wanted to change the status of its farmers from sharecroppers to leaseholders, who could be evicted any time. The farmers were not wiling to get their status changed so they were protesting.

They alleged that the management with the help of rangers had cordoned off numerous villages, where the farmers resided, for the past many months and had set up checkpoints that restricted the villagers’ movement, due to which many sick farmers, women and children could not get medical assistance and had died.

They also alleged that the law enforcers were brutally suppressing the peaceful resistance of the farmers and many a farmers had also been killed by the firing of the LEA personnel, and what was more unfortunate was that many of the farmers had also been implicated in the murder of their colleagues.

The affected farmers said that they had approached the Punjab chief minister, who had accepted that Punjab government was the owner of the MFO land, but, they said, he had expressed his helplessness in the matter and had advised them to meet with the director-general of rangers to sort out the issue.

They said some of the Okara farmers and the members of civil society organizations were observing a hunger strike for over 25 days in Islamabad, but so far nothing had been done to resolve the issue.

They said that it was very unfortunate that the LEA personnel, whose job was to enforce the law, were breaking the law and victimizing the poor farmers.

They said that all the political parties during their election campaigns, since 1990, had been assuring the farmers that they would be given ownership rights, but after coming to power, forgot their promises.

They also showed a letter from an MNA, written to the then prime minister Nawaz Sharif, reminding him that he had promised to give ownership rights to the farmers, on which, they said, Nawaz Sharif had written to the Punjab government to take action in that regard. But after a few days Nawaz government was over thrown by Gen Pervaiz Musharraf, so the issue remained unsolved and had now taken an ugly turn, in which many farmers had lost their lives.

Ghulam Kibriya, M B Naqvi, Ejaz Shafi, Mairaj Mohammad Khan, Anis Haroon, Karamat Ali, Asim Sajjad Akhtar, Syed Ghulam Shah, Syed Hameed Ahmad, Zahid Farooq, Mohammad Ali Shah, Raja Fateh Khan, Shahnoor, Mian Aftab Ahmad, Rahat Saeed, Azhar Jameel, Hasan Akhtar, and others also spoke on the occasion.

Representatives of Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research, Shirkatgah, Aurat Foundation, Jeay Sindh Mahaz, National Workers Party, Tehrik-i-Insaf, Qaumi Jamhoori Party, Karachi City Forum, PML (N), Pakistan Fisher Folk Forum, Irtiqa Foundation, All Pakistan Federation of Trade Unions, Pakistan telecommunications Employees Union, Karachi Kiryana Association, People’s Labour Bureau, Urban resource Centre etc, participated in the protest.