million rupees to set up a state-of-the-art dairy farm on his land. “Wepurchased 100 Australian cows,” hetells the Herald. The compensationpackage he may receive from thegovernment for the acquisition ofhis land will never include themoney he invested in the farm andhe knows that. “I have alreadystarted selling my cows,” he says.

Also gone with his investmentwill be the jobs of workers at hisdairy farm. Kashif, working as amanager at the farm, with

responsibilities to vaccinate thecattle and oversee the milkingprocess, will lose his monthly salaryof 16,000 rupees and access to freshand pure milk. “I like the workhere,” he says.

Kashif has developed skills usefulfor running a dairy farm but oncethe farm is gone due to landacquisition so will his ability toemploy those skills gainfully. Willhe get a similar job in the samearea? Nobody knows.

Upset by similar questions,Waseem and some other localfarmers/landowners have formed asociety called Anjuman MutasareenGarment City. They have alsomoved courts against the project.On December 23 last year, theyfiled a writ petition at the LahoreHigh Court, in which they pointedout that the government did nothold an inquiry, as required under

This may sound dire but it is how most people in the area feel. On October 24, 2013, the Punjab government issued a notification under

Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act (1894) for land acquisition in fourvillages, namely Khokhar Ki Maliyan, Bhamb, Qayampur and Saho KiMaliyan. The total area mentioned in this notification was 8,845 kanals(unit of land equivalent to 505.857 square meters or one-eighth of an acre)and 12 marlas (a marla is equal to 160th of an acre). In a letter dated October25, 2013, the general manager (technical) of PIEDMC, pointed out that theproject will require more land for the construction of a labour colony, ahospital and related infrastructure. The provincial government then issueda second notification on November 16, 2013 for the acquisition of 3,653kanals and 10 marlas of land. Out of this, 1619 kanals and eight marlas wereto be acquired from Saho Ki Maliyan and 1943 kanals and six marlas fromBhamb. The rest was to be acquired from two more villages, namely,Mandiala and Chak Sathihan.

For beginners, the LandAcquisition Act of 1894 is a law inPakistan – and, until recently, inIndia as well – that allows thegovernment to acquire privateland for public purposes fromindividual landowners afterpaying a fixed compensation. InIndia, this law was replaced by theRight to Fair Compensation andTransparency in Land Acquisition,Rehabilitation and ResettlementAct, which was passed in 2013 bythe Indian parliament to regulateland acquisition by thegovernment. “This new actoverturns a colonial law whichprovided the governmenttremendous powers to acquireprivate land at rates well belowprevalent market prices,” AparGupta, a New Delhi-basedlawyer, informs the Herald. With the new law, not only do landowners geta fair and just compensation but social impact studies and theresponsibility for displacement are also taken into account. “Although ithas been criticised by corporate and industry associations, I firmly believethat this law upholds the constitutional ideals of formation of anegalitarian society and the respect for private property,” he adds.

In March this year, the new Indian law was put to its first practical test.The City and Industrial Development Corporation, a state-run agencyresponsible for development of Navi Mumbai International Airport, wasordered to start the acquisition of 271 hectares of land all over again as thevillagers had opposed the earlier acquisition, refusing to accept the stategovernment’s compensation package.

On the contrary, the same 120-year-old British law still applies inPakistan. “The Constitution says we have a fundamental right to acquire,hold and dispose of property. It also says the state may enact laws to takeaway private property, provided (i) such acquisition is done in the “publicinterest” and (ii) such laws provide for compensation,” says Rafay Alam, alawyer and environment activist based in Lahore. “Of course, compensationmeans proper compensation. You cannot take 100 rupees from someone andgive them an apple and call it compensation,” he adds.

Rao Waseem has exactly the same complaint: The government is takingaway 100 rupees from him and giving him an apple in return. His family,perhaps one of the largest landowning households in Qayampur, ownsaround 115 acres of land in the village. In 2012, he invested around 20

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4 (AGRI) CULTURAL(AGRI) CULTURALSHOCKWho really owns the land?

Or should we ask whoshould own the land,

especially when a whole lifestyle isdependent upon it? Abdul Hameed,an old farmer in a village nearLahore, may be able to give us aclue. He wakes up at 5 am everyday, offers his fajr prayer in themosque next to his house and thengoes to work in the fields. He toilstill noon, then walks back home to alunch prepared by his wife. “When Iam home, I smoke hookah all day”,laughs Hameed. But then, he haswork to do. He has been living withhis family in Qayampur village forthe last 30 years. Pointing to thefields, he says, “My children grewup playing here. I can’t imagineleaving this place, taking my familyelsewhere. I have nowhere to go.”His voice bears repressed anguish.

Qayampur is situated inSheikhupura district, quite close to

the Kot Hussain interchange on the Lahore-Islamabad Motorway. Theland here is fertile, carpeted by golden wheat fields and dotted with a fewdairy farms. Most of the houses here are small, ramshackle mudstructures, with chickens and ducks playing outside. It is a serene (noisemade by traffic on the motorway is still a little far away), though notcompletely heavenly, place. During the day, smog from small factories inthe vicinity makes the air pungent and thick with soot. This may worsenin the months to come.

Around 245 acres of land in Qayampur – along with 1,317 acres of landin five neighbouring villages – will soon be acquired by the PunjabIndustrial Estates Development and Marketing Company (PIEDMC). If allgoes as per the government’s plans, in the next 18 months, fields wherewheat crops now sway will turn into the Quaid-e-Azam Apparel Park, anindustrial site that will house hundreds of small and large textile factories.

Around 2,000 families live in these six villages, and most of them earntheir bread and butter from agriculture. Many local farmers, in fact, workon lands owned by others. Similarly, around 25 people work at each ofthe three dairy farms in these villages — most of them earning theirsalaries in agriculture produce.

Abdul Sattar has been living with his wife and eight children inQayampur, which he calls “home”. He does not want to leave the place.“These fields are green because we work hard,” he says. He is angry thatthe government is seizing the fields for industrial purposes. “I do notknow what to do if the government acquires the land. We will die but willnot let that happen.”

An industrial estate is set toreplace green fields andhundreds of farming families

By Osama Motiwala

Qayampur village

Arif

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dying industries only. “An apparelpark, however, will provide properinstitutional support to the textilesector, where stitching, washing,dying, accessory making,embroidery, labeling and knittingunits will operate at a single site,”he tells the Herald.

For many industrialists,however, selection of a suitablesite is not the only attraction forinvesting money. First andforemost, they want thegovernment to resolve the energycrisis. A lot of industries in Punjabare facing huge losses and evenclosures because of electricity

load-shedding and natural gasshortage, says Zahid Virk, whoowns a small factory near Lahore.The benefit that the EU tradeconcessions may offer will be morethan neutralised due to the high costof production, resulting mainly fromhaving to use costly fuels forrunning factories. “We have to runour industry on [costly] diesel-runpower generators,” says Virk.

So precisely where does theplanned project fit in? Hameedbelieves the entire scheme is meantto deprive people like him, withno education and no technicalskills, of the sources of livelihoodthey have been relying on sinceages. “The government shouldrealise that if it continues doingthis, we will lose agriculture inthis country,” he says.

On August 30, 2013, the committee recommended Bhamb and Saho kiMaliyan as the most suitable site because of its “proximity withMotorway”, “availability of land up to 1500 acres” and the presence of“sweet sub-soil water” here.

After a summary was presented to Punjab Chief Minister ShahbazSharif regarding the project, he approved the acquisition of 1,000 acres ofland, although the amount of land stated in the two notifications issuedsubsequently is more than that. The acquired land will be divided intotwo parts — “200 acres of land [earmarked] for the local garmentindustry, provided that the industry signs an MoU [Memorandum ofUnderstanding] with the PIEDMC to express its firm commitmenttowards setting up a garment industry at the site … 800 acres of land[earmarked] for establishment of Chinese Garment City,” reads thesummary. Earlier, on August 21, 2013, the China Knitting IndustryAssociation had signed an MoU with PIEDMC for the development of aSpecial Economic Zone for Chinese investors.

The cost of acquiring 1,000 acres of land was put at 3,142 million rupees –with one acre costing slightly more than three million rupees. But that price,according to local farmers, exists only on paper. Virk tells the Herald that thePIEDMC is offering the farmers only 1.6 million rupees per acre, not threemillion rupees as calculated by the site selection committee. “There is no waywe can buy an acre of land in 1.6 million rupees anywhere else,” says Virk.

The provincial government also seems unsure about how much land itneeds to acquire for the project and how much money this will require. Ameeting of the Provincial Development Working Party (PDWP), the highestofficial body in the province for the approval of big projects, decided onDecember 3, 2013 that a total of 10,400 kanals and 12 marlas should besufficient for the establishment of a garment city/industrial zone. This isabout 2,000 kanals less than the amount of land to be acquired under thetwo official notifications. The PDWP put the estimated cost of landacquisition at 2,190.815 million rupees — close to 1,000 million rupees lessthan the cost estimated by the site selection committee.

More importantly, the provincial government does not even seem toneed a new industrial site given that at least two major industrial estatesin the province have a lot of space available for setting up new industries— and both are located close to major road networks. These are Quaid-e-Azam Industrial Estate in Faisalabad and Sundar Industrial Estate inLahore. The latter, spread over 1,700 acres of land, was inaugurated in2007 and 50 per cent of it is still vacant.

Why is then the Punjab government so keen on investing huge amount ofpublic money in a project which can be easily accommodated within existingindustrial sites? Shafqat Mehmood, a Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf member of theNational Assembly from Lahore, has the same question. “I don’t understandwhy the Punjab government is so keen on building this project on fertileland, displacing thousands of people.” He argues that people should not bemade to leave places where they have been living for years “even if they arecompensated enough”. But, he apprehends: “I don’t think they will even becompensated sufficiently, which is illegal and unethical.”

Barrister Aamir Hassan, a local leader of Pakistan Peoples Party, issimilarly sceptical about the utility of a project meant to devour fertileagricultural land. “Ideally, such projects should only be initiated on landwhich is not fertile so that our agricultural land remains safe,” he says.

Senator Pervaiz Rasheed, the federal information minister, justifies theproject in terms of the EU trade concessions. “Establishing an apparelpark is a smart decision, looking at the opportunity Pakistan has afterreceiving GSP Plus status from EU last year. The government wants tocash in on this opportunity by providing investors with a place tofacilitate the textile industry of Pakistan,” he says. The location of theproject is also ideal for investors due to its proximity to the motorway andLahore, he adds.

When asked about vacant plots at Sundar Industrial Estate and Quaid-e-Azam Industrial Estate in Faisalabad, the minister says the former isalready fully utilised and the latter is meant for weaving, spinning and

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the law, before notifying theacquisition of land. They asked thecourt to set aside the twonotifications for land acquisition,issued one after the other withoutfollowing official procedures anddemanded that the government berestrained from going ahead withthe acquisition process. Thepetitioners also argued that thePIEDMC was acquiring land forprivate use which does not fallunder “public purpose” asprovided in the Land AcquisitionAct. The petitioners told the courtthat the government was trying toestablish the apparel park on fertileagricultural land where hundredsof farmers work to earn their living.They also criticised thegovernment’s policy of destroyingagriculture to build industries. OnJanuary 27, 2014, JusticeMuhammad Khalid MehmoodKhan issued a temporary noticeagainst the acquisition of land.

During a later hearing in Februaryby a bigger bench, Punjab’s actingadvocate general Mustafa Ramdayopposed the petition on behalf ofthe government. He said all relevantrules had been followed inacquiring the land. He also objectedthat the Anjuman MutasareenGarment City was not a registeredorganisation and therefore was noteligible to move the court on theissue. Accepting his arguments, abench, comprising JusticeAminuddin Khan and JusticeShahid Hameed Dar, rejected thefarmers’ petition.

The farmers have now taken theirplea to the Supreme Court. Theirlawyer, Dr Abdul Basit, believes theLahore High Court dismissed thecase without looking into theproject’s implication for thefarmers. “I have complete faith inthe judiciary and I hope thedecision by the Supreme Court willbe in our favour,” says Nisar Virk,the president of AnjumanMutasareen Garment City.

Others are not so sanguine. “I amlosing hope day by day. I think wewill lose this case, and then we willnot be able to even protest since theSupreme Court’s decision will befinal,” says Waseem. “We havealready spent over two millionrupees to pay our lawyers but ourcase was dismissed. [The

government] is very powerful. I don’t think [the judiciary] can reallyinterfere in government’s matters.”

The project is important for the government since it is ostensibly being setup to take advantage of the relaxed European trade regime offered to Pakistanrecently. Last December, the European Union (EU) granted GeneralisedScheme of Preferences (GSP) Plus status to Pakistan to allow Pakistani textileproducts to enter European markets at zero import duties. Officials say it wasin anticipation of the EU concessions that the Punjab government set up acommittee in the summer of 2013, headed by the provincial Planning andDevelopment Board chairman, to examine the possibilities of setting up textileindustries which could export their products to EU markets. The committeevisited several locations in Sheikhupura district for the selection of a suitablesite for setting up such industries and identified three places. These, in orderof preference, were: (i) Bhamb and Saho ki Maliyan (ii) Kot Ranjeet, Dheerdaand Thabal and (iii) Kot Pindi Dass. All of them consisted of primeagricultural and irrigated land.

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Above and below: A dairy farm set up in Qayampur village

The provincial governmentdoes not even seem toneed a new industrial sitegiven that at least twomajor industrial estates inthe province have amplespace available for settingup new industries — andare both located close tomajor road networks.