LAHORE: The country should have new land reforms and all state lands should be given to its tenants, so said Abid Hassan Minto, president of Pakistan Workers` Party, in a seminar arranged to observe the World Food Day.

He demanded that the government malce food sovereignty part of the constitution. `The poor need to be made part of the assemblies so that the real representatives of the labourers and the poor can be made part of the governance system. Only land cannot be called acountry but people make the state and it is basic right of the tenants to the lands they are tilling for decades.

He said his party had already moved applications in the Supreme Court for land reforms and ownership rights for slum (katchi abadi) dwellers and the party would hopefully win the case.

Addressing the seminar, Balram Banskota, general secretary of All Nepal Kissan (f armers) Fe deration, said his country was being punished by the Indian imperialism for adopting a `secular constitution, which would serve the Nepalese.

Over 90 per cent of Nepalesevoted for the constitution, but it was still being disputed by the Indians and the nation being pressed through every available means.

`We stand for the poor of the South Asia, but the governments were pressing ahead with neo-liberal agenda, which is pushing millions down the poverty line. The Nepalese government has accepted food sovereignty as part of the constitution and we hope that other South Asian governments would follow.

`Pakistani and Nepalese farmers have identical problems; both are suffering at the hands of multi-nationals and neo-liberal forces.

Both need to join hands and struggle together,` he said.

Mehr Abdul Sattar, leader of Anjuman-i-Mazareen Okara, also spoke on the occasion and said that the government was still punishing tenets of military lands. Leaders of the tenets were still being implicated in fake FIRs.

Farooq Tariq, general secretary of the Awami Workers Party, said all state land should be given to the tenants and feudalism must end, constitutionally. The effort to eject tenants of military lands must end, and it would be resisted with every possible means, he said.