Who is Mehr Abdul Sattar? PTI’s candidate for MPA from Okara

In an exciting new development, a peasant-farmer leader has been granted PTI’s MPA ticket.

Mehr Abdul Sattar gained national recognition after he was granted Pakistan Tehreen-I-Insaaf’s MPA ticket. He led the movement for farmer ownership rights of Okara military farms, facing 36 sedition cases. Not just that, but Sattar was also kept in jail for four years!

Who is Mehr Abdul Sattar?

The Secretary General of Anjuman Mazareen Punjab (peasant movement), Sattar, joined PTI back in 2022. He gained popularity for leading a mass campaign for ownership rights of farmers and peasants and has also spent time in jail for raising his voice for the downtrodden.

In September 2020, Mehr was accorded a warm welcome when he reached Okara Military Farms after serving his time in jail. He was arrested in 2016 during a raid on his house after he announced holding a big rally at his village, Chak 4/4-L on the eve of International Farmers’ Day. A Sahiwal anti-terrorism court sentenced him to ten years in jail in 2018.

He has been leading a military farms’ peasants movement since 2001, which was the first major mass movement against General Musharraf, as their villages were besieged by the military farm’s administration. The women peasants were at the forefront of this powerful movement.

It erupted when the administration proposed to bring in a contracting system with the farmers and the peasants refusing to share their harvest with the administration. The peasants’ leaders, including Sattar, were booked in many cases, including treason, terrorism, extortion, and attacking police. Senior lawyers like Asma Jahangir, Azam Nazir Tarrar, Farooq Ahmad Bajwa, and others represented SAttar at various stages in cases of attempted murder, illegal gatherings, and others. He was released after strong demands by national and international human rights organisations.

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