Sale of land to foreign investors: 'Kissan Board knocks on judiciary's doors'

The provincial chief of Pakistan Kissan Board, Khurshid Ahmed Kanju, has said: "We had knocked the doors of the judiciary to save the land from foreign countries and we are optimistic that we would get justice very soon."
He told reporters that the Chief Justice of the Lahore High Court, Justice Khawaja Muhammad Sharif, has given last chance to the federal government to file reply till October 13 in the petition challenging the proposed sale or lease of millions of acres agricultural land to some foreign countries.
Addressing a press conference here on Wednesday he alleged that the government was planning to lease out 500,000 acres land to Saudi Arabia. He said another plan to give millions of acres to Gulf states and other countries was also in progress. He said the sale, or lease, of land on such a massive scale might pose security risk to the country because the people of the subcontinent had to face the same problem when the East India Company had come to this part of the world.
He said the Company had entered this region for trading purposes but ultimately it snatched the freedom of the people and made them slaves. He said that the land, which is being offered for sale to Saudi Arabia, is twice in size of Hong Kong and it would amount to depriving the people of the rich soil and climate suitable for almost every crop. He said the government should itself use the land for cultivation to help the people suffering from price hike.
He submitted that poor peasants of the country whose ancestors laid down countless sacrifices for their homeland would be seriously affected by this deal. He pleaded that this deal would become a death warrant for farmers as their survival would be impossible.
Kanju said the poor peasants deserve to get this land for betterment of their families and in the long run for the economic uplift of the country. He requested that the federal government should be restrained from selling or leasing out land to foreign countries and distribute it among the peasants. He also requested that the court should order the government to keep from such 'anti-state' acts.
The Ministry of Food and Agriculture in its reply to the petition stated that a few foreign countries, including Saudi Arabia and Qatar, had shown interest in agriculture sector but no land had been offered to the Saudi government, or private investors, as such decisions would finally be taken in consultation with the provincial governments. These proposals are still at pre-feasibility stage and no commitment has so far been made with any country, or private investor, about leasing out of government or private land to any foreign investor.