All Pakistan Minorities Alliance (APMA) has threatened to launch a protest drive against the revenue staff of Muzaffargarh district if they did not stop extortion from the poor farmers and harassing them.
Addressing a gathering of Christian farmers of Chak Nos 547, 548 and 583 (Chowk Sarwar Shaheed) Naveed Amer Jeeva, MPA and Co-ordinator of APMA southern Punjab and Fr. Inayat Gill Parish said that they would not let anyone to irritate the Christians and extorting heavy amounts from them.
They said that Christians are ready to pay the prescribed taxes like agricultural income tax and water rate (Abiana) etc but they would not pay even a single penny as gratification, bribe. He said that Christians had developed the barren land and made it arable with continuous efforts of 35 years but now revenue staff was allotting this fertile land to influential persons in the guise of adjustment and they were demanding huge amounts from Christians to save their land from adjustment.
They further said that proprietary rights be granted to Christians as per instructions of Governor Punjab and not to grab the land developed by the Christians.
Local farmers Chaudhry Siddique Masih, Ilyas Masih, Alder Amanuel, ex-District Councillors Sardar Masih, Wilayat Masih alleged that Tehsildar Rashid Khan and Patwari Qazi Imran were tampering with the record to show the cultivable land as barren and this land was being allotted to the influential people and Jagirdars and Revenue officers have stopped the Christians from wheat harvesting and they were demanding bribe.
Later, farmers staged a demonstration and chanted slogans against the revenue staff. They have threatened to observe hunger strike in all major cities of the country if their demands were not met.