General Asim Munir-led Pakistan Army has once again confirmed what a Lahore High Court judge had said about the army being the biggest land grabber. After failing to hoodwink the courts in usurping public land measuring over 45,000 acres in fertile Punjab, the army has launched a new corporate farming project in Punjab recently to take over vast tracts of farmland in the next few years.
The project is spearheaded by Fauji Foundation’s new project, Fongrow, led by retired Major General Tahir Aslam. The firm has its office at the Fauji Foundation headquarters in Chaklala, Rawalpindi.
The army owns approximately 12 percent of the total land in Pakistan, predominantly under the ownership of retired Generals, making it the largest landowner in the nation. In May last, the Lahore High Court, ruling on a petition against Defence Housing Authority, another real estate venture of the Fauji Foundation, said the army was the biggest land grabber in the country.
Several senior Generals and their family members have been involved in the real estate business managed by the Fauji Foundation. The Fongrow is the latest venture of the mega-billion dollar trust which runs cereal factories to refineries. The firm was set up in 2022 to launch a new venture in corporate farming. Within months, the Punjab government decided to offer over 45000 acres to the Fauji Foundation but the court intervention stalled the takeover in March this year. The army had by then negotiated with the provincial and federal governments as well as several private companies, many of them foreign. Last July, the Islamabad High Court had ruled that the Pakistan Army neither had the power or the jurisdiction to directly or indirectly engage in business ventures of any nature outside its composition nor to claim the ownership of state land, ruling that any such activity was subject to explicit permission by the federal government.
Despite these court orders, Fongrow has acquired vast tracts of land in Punjab, of which the first parcel of 2250 acres of farmland in Southern Punjab, named the Perowal-Khanewal Farm was recently inaugurated by General Asim Munir. The primary goal of this agricultural project is to establish a ‘testbed’ for high-grade, high-yielding, smart, and mechanized farming in Pakistan. General Munir said it was time Pakistan threw away the begging bowl.
Till date, Fongrow has acquired about 5000 acres, of which 2250 acres are under cultivation.
In future, the firm has decided to establish corporate farms over more than 30,000 acres over next 5 years for cotton, wheat, pulses, oil crops and Rhodes grass in the Thar desert area.
Another future project is to establish the first farm near Mankera over approx 10,000 acres. This farm will be based on a corporate model, taking advantage of all the latest technologies. The firm hopes to expand corporate farms to 100,000 acres, cultivating various crops such as wheat, cotton, oilseed crops, soybean, and sesame in different districts across the country.