Constitution, law do not permit army to engage in corporate farming, LHC told

LAHORE: Neither the Constitution nor the Pakistan Army’s own legislation allows it to take up corporate agriculture farming or any commercial ventures, the Lahore High Court (LHC) was told by Fahad Malik, the lawyer for the petitioner, on Tuesday.

A single-member bench of the LHC resumed hearing a petition against granting up to one million acres of state land in Punjab to the Pakistan Army for corporate farming.

The lawyer argued in the court that Articles 243, 244 and 245 of the Constitution govern the military’s constitutional role.

None of these Articles nor the “Army Act [1952] make any reference to ‘agriculture’ or ‘corporate farming’,” he said.

Malik further quoted various judgements of the Supreme Court and the high courts which lay out the functions of the armed forces, which he stated were: to defend the country against external aggression and to act in aid of the civil power when called upon to do so, subject to law.

Before closing his arguments, the counsel for the petitioner also contended that the replies filed by the federal and the Punjab government contradict the Joint Venture Agreement signed on March 8, between the governor of Punjab and the Pakistan Army in order to lease the land.

The government has repeatedly claimed that the land being granted to the army was in fact “barren” and “waste”, the lawyer argued, whereas the Joint Venture Agreement does not refer to the land as either.

In fact, a meeting of the Punjab caretaker cabinet held on February 25 referred to the land as “unutilised or with illegal occupants”.

Geo News has seen the minutes of the cabinet’s meeting.

The cabinet meeting further specified that initial funding for corporate farming will be provided by the army.

However, the Joint Venture Agreement states that the government of Punjab will provide canal water or electricity, construct farm-to-market roads if needed, and assist the army to seek benefits from various government schemes, the lawyer said.

The hearing has been adjourned till Wednesday when the provincial and federal government will be presenting their arguments in the court. 

Separately, in a press conference held on April 25, Major General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, the director general of the military’s media wing, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), was asked about the corporate farming project. He replied that food security was a challenge for Pakistan.

“In developing and developed countries their governments have used the military, in some way or the other, to improve the agriculture sector,” he said, adding that what role the military can play in making lands more cultivable, was in the end the decision of the provincial and federal government.