LAHORE: President Asif Ali Zardari on Saturday declared that the PPP-led government will strive to resolve the issue of proprietary rights of the tenants of Okara farmlands.
He said that he was aware that the tenants had been agitating for their proprietary rights for the past several decades and a resolution had eluded them but the present government, like other seemingly intractable issues, will resolve this one also amicably in consultation with all the stakeholders.
Spokesperson to the President Senator Farhatullah Babar said that the President gave this assurance when a delegation of the representatives of tenants called on him here at the Governor House during which the leader of the delegation Muhammad Ashraf Sohna, MPA and District President Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Okara also presented the demands of the tenants.
The President also disclosed that he had been trying to resolve the issue and expressed the hope that together with stakeholders "we will find a solution to it".
Muhammad Ashraf Sohna, MPA presented an appeal which was also signed by some of the MPAs of the area asking for proprietary rights for the tenants.
The appeal said that the tenants are working on this land for over 100 years and during the past 61 years, successive civil governments promised the tenants ownership rights but were never implemented.
The appeal recalled that Shaheed Mohtrama Benazir Bhutto had also publically supported the demands of ownership rights and had stated that the PPP will give the tenants the ownership rights.
The appeal presented to the President said that the homes they are living in are on the names of the tenants and their ancestors had worked hard for over 100 years to turn the salty land into an agricultural and fertile land, adding that most of the tenants have the land on their names and were cultivating as tenants at the time of independence but still they are not the owners of the land.
The appeal says that none of the tenants have more than 12 acres of land and demanded from the government the ownership rights for the tenants of farms in Lahore, Okara, Renala Khurd, Sargodha and Pakpattan. It said that giving ownership rights to the tenants will benefit 100,000 families and will also give boost to agriculture in the area.
The appeal urged a development package worth Rs. 300 million for 25 villages of the Okara Farms besides special job Quotas for the children of the tenants.
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