- A mazareen child working during the wheat season
On the 28th of March 2011, a call was given to the farmers of the military farms for a march to Lahore. The long march was organized by the Anjuman Mazareen Punjab (AMP), a peaceful movement of peasants and landless tenants of the military farms located in ten districts of the Punjab province. In response to the call, thousands of tenants including men, women, youth and even children were out on the roads. There were hundreds of vehicles, mostly tractor trolleys and motor bikes, as well as many people who came by foot. The rally comprised of men, women, elderly, youth and even children. Everyone chanted the slogan: Maliki ya Maut (Ownership or death.) The police stopped the protestors from Khanewal, and things did not remain peaceful. The rest of the event continued as planned and the mazareen from different parts of Southern Punjab made it to the provincial capital. This time, the movement even made headlines in both the print and electronic media. The founder of the AMP, Younis Iqbal, was sad about the clash on the Khanewal unit. “The long march was successful as it made a very strong impact on the spirit of the movement, but the Khanewal mazareen could not join us,” Mr. Iqbal said.
What had happened in Khanewal is what the mazareen had been facing for over a decade now. In an interview with Mr. James Masih, an eyewitness, he said that when the demonstrators reached Khanewal city, the armed police force were standing on the roadsides. The mazareen were not stopped, but when the procession was passing through, the police started throwing tear gas at the demonstrators. Women and children were beaten while men and young boys were arrested. Since the demonstrators were not prepared for this assault, they decided to flee back to their villages instead of fighting. Mr. Masih explained: “We were told by the administration to not take part in the long March. They tried to stop us by saying that a high level meeting was to be held on the 29th, a day after the planned march. The farmers ignored the message and still showed up for the event. It was a tactic by the administration to try and cancel the rally so that the struggle of the farmers is halted.” However, Mr. Masih has no doubt that the mazareen will continue to fight until their last breath.
Since 2000, numerous rallies and clashes have taken place to suppress this movement. What is also surprising is that in a country with a vibrant media, this was one movement which was successfully stopped from making headlines. In the past, the movement was not considered worthy of attention of many civil society groups. Only a handful of activists from Multan and Lahore remembered these movements on special days like the May Day celebrations. Mr.Iqbal said the newspapers were told not to cover an anti-establishment resistance. “We were being portrayed by the establishment as terrorists, and giving us media attention would give undue benefit to the resistance,” he said.
Events like these have created an atmosphere of doubt and distrust among the mazareen, who have been promised repeatedly to be granted ownership rights by the government and local politicians. In 1998, Former Prime Minister Nawaz Shariff promised the tenants the ownerships rights in return to their votes. Numerous struggles were previously crushed, as they were not organized effectively and the farmers did not know whom to go to for help.
The mazareen movement has been through a lot of challenges. Mr. Younis Iqbal, the founder of the AMP, was in jail for eight months for ‘inciting the peasants to rebel/resistance.’ There have also been many other instances of beatings, arrests, tear gas attacks, shelling, torture and even killing, but nothing seems to have deterred these workers. The peasants still continue to hold to their slogan of Maliki ya maut.
While talking about those who died during the clashes as well as those that died due to a lack of medical care when the villages were under siege by the security agencies, Mr. Iqbal explains: “No movement is successful unless there is blood shed involved in it, and we have given the blood of fourteen innocent mazareen in this fight. Therefore, we strongly believe we will succeed in this fight for freedom from slavery. We are not afraid. We illiterate people have been able to reach so far in this struggle with our persistence and strong will power.”
One of the most compelling arguments the mazareen made with the people, who came for negotiations was the freedom from slavery. “We live in Pakistan, a country that has gained independence. But we mazareen are still not free, we are still forced to live under the [Colonization] Law of 1912. We want to be part of the country’s independence too so that we can finally breathe in the air of independence.” Mr. Iqbal said. The senior army officers did not have much to say to that he recalled.
Mr. Iqbal values the role of the Punjab Board of Revenue for their role in the mazareen struggle. The mazareen went to the Revenue officials to inquire about the registered owner of the farms in year 1999. They discovered that the organizations that had been collecting revenues, forcing them to give up half of their produce for decades, were legally not entitled to do that. “Since the owner is the government of Punjab, the Revenue Board was the only authority to claim any dues from the farmers,” Mr. Iqbal said. “This is why after the introduction of the new yearly lease system, the peasants have refused to pay cash or share produce to the managers of the farms,” he added. This event was a turning point in the struggle of the mazareen.
Today the movement has finally received attention at the national level. After the long march to Lahore, the Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani has assured the AMP that the matter will be resolved soon. Committees have been formed at provincial and national level to transfer the ownership rights to the mazareen. “We were invited to the initial meetings that were held by the Punjab Board of Revenue, but then the local politicians stepped in to be included in these committees. They feared that if they were not part of it, it will affect their vote bank in those villages.” Mr. Iqbal said.
The leaders of AMP are now hopeful for a positive result. Their story is one of a kind in the history of Pakistan, as it is a struggle for the rights of the landless tenants, which was not led by the country’s elite but by the untaught peasants themselves. These peasants, who have been suppressed for a century now, are hoping for a brighter future for their children. Most of them remained uneducated due to economic burdens and hardships of farming. Now the mazareen are looking forward to start development projects for the welfare of their communities and villages.
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