Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Friday condemned the decades-long atrocities, torture, arrests, and false cases against the peasants of Okara military forms and asked the authorities to stop treating the peasantry as conquered or occupied folks and restore their genuine rights over the farms’ land.
The PPP chairman was talking to a delegation of the Okara farms’ peasants led by former MNA and PPP Okara President Sajjadul Hassan, which called on him in Islamabad Friday.
Bilawal recalled that his mother and former Prime Minister Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto had been raising the issue of barbarities against the peasants to force them to cede their rights on the land. He said that even the women and children were not spared the brutalities.
“Registration of cases against 4,000 peasants besides other strong-arm tactics against the farmers is the worst attack on the innocent farmers and the PPP, along with the toiling masses, will not tolerate such brutalities against our own fellow citizens,” he said.
“The world observed April 17 as International Peasants Day, but here in Islamabad the peasants were not even allowed to take out a rally on the day and they were subjected to torture and put behind bars,” he added.
The PPP chairman said those who are trying to convert Okara military farms into bonded labour camps should not forget that Pakistan is an independent and sovereign country governed by the law of the land any attempt to continue injustices against them would be vehemently resisted by the entire nation.
He expressed solidarity with the peasants of the Okara farms and assured them that the PPP would continue to raise its voice against the brutalities they are being subjected to at every forum. The PPP chairman also criticised registration of cases under Anti-Terrorism Act against the peasants and demanded immediate release of all the arrested peasants including seven women.
Bilawal Bhutto Zardari demanded that all the genuine demands of the peasants should be accepted without any delay and the judiciary should also step in to fight the injustices against them. The chairman also directed the People’s Lawyers Forum to extend all possible legal aid to the jailed peasants of Okara farms.
