Pakistan: PPP opposes acquisition of fertile lands for installing power plants

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The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Punjab chapter has opposed the provincial government’s policy to acquire cultivable tracts of land from farmers to install coal-based power plants and has urged it to instead use barren government lands for this purpose.

In a statement on Tuesday, PPP Punjab President Mian Manzoor Ahmed Wattoo urged the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) government not to deprive poor farmers of their lands, especially in Muzaffargarh District. Wattoo castigated the Punjab government for its anti-farmers policies from the outset and said that acquisition of thousands of acres of farmlands in Muzaffargarh District for the purpose of establishing a power plant was one of its manifestations. He said that despite availability of sufficient barren lands owned by it in the area, the Punjab government was yet determined to deprive poor farmers of their only source of earning livelihood.

He said that the government was pushing farmers to resort to extreme actions like blocking national highways or launching a march towards the provincial capital to press the government for acceptance of their demands. The PPP Punjab president pointed out that any development strategy should be in harmony with imperatives of social and development notions including preservation of climate that would ensure sustainable development, which was an acceptable development strategy in the world.

He called upon the government to hold negotiations with farmers to work out a mutually agreed formula. However, he said, if acquisition of lands becomes indispensable, then farmers should be given compensation on market value of their lands, which was much higher than what the government was unilaterally offering them on the basis of its own assessment. Wattoo also said that formula for the assessment of value of the land should be carried out by Third Party evaluation. However, he stressed again that the government should give priority to setting up power plants on government lands. Source.