March 25, 2026
Muhammad Junaid
LAHORE
The Pakistan Kissan Rabita Committee (PKRC) has strongly condemned what it termed the “forced eviction” of peasants from the Chak Katora Farm in Hasilpur, alleging that the move is part of a broader push to transfer agricultural land to corporate interests.
In a statement, the committee criticised eviction notices issued to peasants, which direct them to vacate their homes and cultivated land within 30 days. It said the notices were not administrative measures but amounted to “open dispossession” carried out through fear, pressure and the use of state authority.
The PKRC said that generations of peasants had cultivated the land, built homes and sustained rural livelihoods, but were now being treated as outsiders on land they had long worked on.
It also raised concern over announcements made through mosques warning residents of a possible operation involving police and other forces if the orders were not followed, terming such measures as intimidation rather than governance.
Corporate farming concerns
The committee linked the evictions to what it described as a wider political and economic project under the banner of “corporate farming”, investment and agricultural modernisation.
It alleged that thousands of acres of land across the country were being transferred to corporate entities, military-linked institutions and agribusiness companies, both local and international. This, it said, was part of a systematic process in which land was being taken from cultivators and handed over to those seeking profit.
The statement described the move as a continuation of “colonial-style land control”, arguing that peasants were being stripped of land they had made fertile through decades of labour.
Peasants of Chak Katora Farm stage a protest rally against corporate farming.
Demands
The peasants demanded immediate and unconditional withdrawal of eviction notices and called for recognition of their ownership, occupancy and cultivation rights.
They also urged the government to halt forced evictions in the name of corporate farming, end coercive operations against rural communities, and implement land reforms to ensure equitable distribution of land among peasants and agricultural workers.
In their statement, the PKRC appealed to political parties, trade unions, civil society groups, lawyers and journalists to raise their voice against the evictions, warning that silence would lead to further dispossession.
Call for resistance
The PKRC announced that peasants would resist the evictions, saying similar struggles had taken place in different parts of Punjab and Sindh and would continue.
It maintained that the issue was not merely about land but about dignity, survival and justice, adding that entire communities, including women, youth and the elderly, would take part in the resistance.
PKRC chairperson Farooq Tariq told Voicepk that a meeting would be held at the South Asian Free Media Association (SAFMA) in Lahore on March 31 to register protest and decide the future course of action.