LAHORE: The Lahore High Court has put a halt on the Punjab caretaker government’s plan to lease around 45,000 acres of land to the Pakistan Army for a corporate agriculture farming project.
According to the details, the caretaker government, led by Mohsin Naqvi, had signed a joint venture agreement with the army on March 8, 2023, to hand over the land in Bhakkar, Khushab, and Sahiwal districts.
However, Judge Abid Hussain Chattha has now stopped the provincial government from proceeding with the lease.
The court took this decision after Ahmad Rafay Alam filed a petition on behalf of the Public Interest Law Association of Pakistan, which argued that as per Section 230 (functions of caretaker government) of the Election Act 2017, the caretaker government’s mandate was limited to performing day-to-day functions of the government and specifically barred from making policy decisions of a permanent nature.
The petitioner contended that the army’s constitutional mandate only restricted it to perform functions related to external and internal security and did not extend to corporate agriculture farming, the intended purpose, as per the government’s notification.
Furthermore, the court issued notices to the Punjab Board of Revenue and secretaries of different departments, including Agriculture, Forest, Wildlife and Fisheries, Irrigation, and Livestock & Dairy Development for May 9.
Notices have also been served on the Attorney-General for Pakistan and Advocate General Punjab.
