Petition against land lease disposed of

Mr. Justice Khawaja Muhammad Sharif (L), judge of Lahore High Court

The News | Wednesday, October 14, 2009

By Our Correspondent

LAHORE

Lahore High Court (LHC) Chief Justice Khawaja Muhammad Sharif has disposed of a writ petition filed by Kisan Board, which alleged the government was ready to lease or sell 10,00,000 acres of agriculture land to foreign countries.

On Tuesday, the chief justice directed the Ministry of Food and Agriculture that no land would be sold or leased out to any foreign country without prior intimation to this court.

The Ministry of Interior submitted para-wise reply to the petition, claiming that the issue in litigation was related to Ministry of Agriculture and Food. The ministry could explain the situation in a better way, it said.

The petition was filed by the Kisan Board Pakistan (KBP) president Sardar Zafar Hussain Khan alleging that the government was ready to sell 10,00,000 acres of agriculture land to foreign investors and out of which 500,00 acres land had been offered to Saudi Arabia in all the four provinces. The government of Qatar had also shown interest in purchasing the agriculture land, it added.

The petitioner said the land being offered for sale to Saudi Arabia was double in size to Hong Kong.

It was pointed out that the sale or lease of land on such a massive scale might pose a security risk to the country because the people of the sub-continent had faced the same problem when the East India Company had come to this part of the world.

Earlier, the Ministry of Food and Agriculture had also admitted the fact in a written reply submitted in the LHC that 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 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”, the report said.

“Ministry of Food and Agriculture keeps receiving proposals for cooperation and investment in agriculture sector in Pakistan from various countries.

The Ministry examines these proposals in consultation with the stakeholders before firming up final recommendation,” the report added.

On Tuesday, Deputy Attorney General Amir-ur-Reham on behalf of the Interior Ministry requested the court to delete its name from the petition.

The chief justice accepted this requested but observed that contempt of court notices would be issued to the ministry if it took any action about leasing out land.
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