PBF urges provinces to prohibit housing projects on agri lands

LAHORE: The Pakistan Business Forum (PBF) has urged provincial governments to prohibit housing developments on agricultural lands.

According to Jahanara Wattoo, Vice President of the PBF, almost 25% to 30% of Punjab’s fertile agricultural land has been turned into residential colonies and industrial estates in the last two decades, putting the province’s efforts to become the “food basket of Pakistan” and ensure the nation’s food security in jeopardy.

Jahanara Wattoo said during a press conference on Monday that housing societies and industrial units have taken over 70 percent of the farmland in Lahore, and the remaining farmland is safe from such activities only because it is close to the Indian border.

Jahanara requested a prohibition on transformation of the rural land into settlements or modern domains, and present vertical lodging in the urban communities while moving the modern units to non-cultivable regions like Thal desert.

She pleaded with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to immediately convene a farmers conference to solicit their suggestions for agricultural development and the development and implementation of a farming policy.

The provincial governments must also follow the National Climate Change Policy to promote vertical growth in the urban areas to protect agricultural land from increasing construction activities. Similarly provincial governments to introduce laws that will make it mandatory to seek permission from the provincial cabinets to convert green land to brown land for residential purposes.

According to a report released by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Pakistan has the highest rate of urbanization in South Asia. With a 5% population growth rate, it also demonstrated an increasing strain on the existing housing infrastructure.

“We want to encourage vertical growth in cities so that agricultural land and tree cover in the country can be protected. To preserve the natural environment, we must halt the trend of housing societies consuming agricultural land. We trust once all-inclusive strategies are arranged the development of urban communities will move in the positive direction,” said Jahanara Wattoo.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023