After a news item in an Urdu daily about allotment of agricultural land to former COAS General Raheel Sharif was published, a part of electronic media tossed around the issue and raised the question whether the practice of allotment of land to defence personnel should continue or stop. They should have known that the land is allotted under Article 268 of the Constitution of Pakistan. The Pakistan Army on Thursday reacted to reports regarding allotment of land to former army chief General (retd) Raheel Sharif saying this debate with intent of maligning army has the potential to create misunderstanding between state institutions. “Issue of allotment of agricultural land to Army officers and soldiers is being debated and conjectured for last few days. In this regard it may be known that such allotments are through constitutional provision,” said a statement issued by the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR).
The allotment of 90 acres of land to the former chief of army staff (COAS) General (r) Raheel Sharif is not an ‘unprecedented’ or an unfamiliar thing within the military spheres. The move, as it has been unnecessarily hyped, does not come as a new privilege granted to the former army chief but is in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution. Apart from that, the allotment of agricultural land to serving and retired military personnel is an old and well-established practice going back to the period of British rule in India. Contrary to what is being told and understood, the allotment of the land has not been made by the incumbent government. Pakistan Army officers are given agricultural lands in lieu of their services for their country by the army itself. The distribution of lands is directly carried out by the General Headquarters (GHQ) through lands allotment committee.
The land allotted to former COAS Raheel Sharif is actually alongside Pakistan-India working boundary where neither water scarcity allowed cultivation nor could be used for commercial purposes due to bordering areas.
The land also could not be cultivated due to non-availability of canal water, as the nearby BRB Canal is not meant to provide water to the upper channel lands. The BRB Canal only provides water for lands in interior Punjab and not for upper channel lands across the bordering areas. Out of the land allotted to General Raheel Sharif, 20 acres of land falls in the waterlogged areas, which is of no use. Moreover, the land is also not in one place and rather the same is divided into four parts. Talking to national English daily, a close aide of General Raheel Sharif quoted the retired general: “Neither, I influenced anyone for allocation of land, nor there is any illegality committed in the land allocation.” It has to be mentioned that in India also lands to army personnel are allotted in Haryana, Bihar and UP etc.; and 100000 acres of land are reserved for ex-servicemen in 51 Tehsils. Among other benefits like jobs to the ex-servicemen in the government departments, and health and education facilities for their children, a percentage of industrial plots are also reserved for them. In India, Army welfare placement organization, Indian Air Force placement organization, Navy placement organization and Kendrya Sainak Board look after the interests of the ex-servicemen. But nobody raises any question to the facilities provided to the ex-service men in India, whereby in Pakistan a part of intelligentsia, analysts, panelists and anchorpersons with myopic vision try to create doubts in the minds of the people, and make the genuine allotment to the army personnel a controversial matter.
