Pakistan's Lahore HC Suspends Order Challenging Land Transfer to Army for Corporate Farming

The Lahore High Court (LHC) has made a significant ruling by suspending its previous order that prohibited the transfer of land to the Pakistan Army for corporate farming on a 20-year lease. According to report, the judgement was delivered by a two-member bench, with Justice Ali Baqar Najafi presiding, following the Punjab government's petition to annul the previous ruling made by the LHC's single-member bench.

The Punjab government argued that the complainants, who were Lahore-based lawyers, were not directly affected parties in this matter. Additionally, the government emphasized that it is not the court's role to regulate agricultural policies, defending its decision to allow the transfer of land to the Pakistan Army for corporate farming purposes.

Earlier in June, the LHC's single-member bench, led by Justice Abid Hussain Chattha, had declared the leasing of land to the Pakistan Army for corporate farming as illegal. The bench had observed that the armed forces had no constitutional and legal mandate to engage in corporate farming.

In a written judgment, Justice Chattha also mentioned that the caretaker government of Punjab lacked the constitutional authority to allocate land for corporate farming.

The controversy arose when the Punjab government notified the allocation of more than 45,267 acres of land in three districts- Bhakkar, Khushab, and Sahiwal- to the Pakistan Army for a corporate agriculture farming project.

This allotment was made after the director general of strategic projects of the Pakistan Army sent a request to the Board of Revenue in Punjab on February 8, seeking up to 1 million acres of state land in the region for ‘corporate agriculture farming.’

The letter from the Pakistan Army argued that the rising prices of oil and food posed serious challenges to Pakistan's economy and agriculture sector. It further contended that the Army had the necessary experience to develop "waste barren lands" for agricultural purposes.