ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s southern Sindh province has formally agreed to grant more than 52,000 acres of barren land to an army-backed firm, M/S Green Corporate Initiative (Private) Limited, for corporate farming, the Sindh chief minister’s office said on Saturday, as part of efforts to boost agriculture in the South Asian country.
It was one of the initiatives under the umbrella of the Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC), established in June last year, as part of which the federal and provincial governments, including the then-elected Sindh government, had decided to introduce the initiative of corporate agriculture farming (CAF) in all provinces, according to the Sindh CM’s office.
Considering an ongoing initiative decided at national and provincial levels, the statement of conditions (SoCs) for corporate agriculture farming was approved by the Sindh caretaker government on December 01, 2023 to ensure the continuity of the policy decisions of the previous elected governments both at federal and provincial levels.
“As a pilot project, concerned Deputy Commissioners have identified some pieces of barren land measuring approximately ‘52713’ Acres, for the pilot project of this initiative i.e., Khairpur 28,000 Acres, Tharparkar 10,000 Acres, Dadu 9305 Acres, Thatta 1000 Acres, Sujawal 3408 Acres and Badin 1000 Acres,” the Sindh CM’s office said in a statement.
“The barren land shall be handed over for 20 years after survey, demarcation and verification that such land is not located in prohibited areas, not under any pending litigations or court orders and also not included in any barrage land grants.”
The Sindh government said that it would ensure that no land was considered for this initiative that fell within the limits of any villages, katchi abadi, temporary shelters, grazing land, amenity, potential mining areas, motorways, roads, jails, railway lines, irrigation channels, wildlife sanctuaries, mountain ranges, heritage sites, religious sites, graveyards, forest, sea creeks, river deltas, port and sea shore.
“The Company shall spend 20 percent of the Net profit on Research and Development in the local area, while 40 percent of the Net Profit will be paid to the Sindh Government on an annual basis,” the statement read.
“The remaining 40 percent of the Company share shall also be spent on local infrastructures, irrigation channels, solar water supply schemes, schools, hospitals, development schemes and other facilities in areas where such projects will be executed in Sindh province.”
The land will not be granted as a title but only for cultivation purposes, while its ownership will remain with the Sindh government, according to the statement. A Board of Management has been established under the Sindh chief secretary that will take all decisions regarding the land management and issues, and the Sindh government will have the final authority in case any issues arise.
Agriculture contributes 23 percent to Pakistan’s GDP and employs 37.4 percent of the labor force but productivity is currently below par, with decreasing cultivation area, a population-production gap, and agricultural imports amounting to $10 billion.
The country is also facing a 4 million metric ton shortfall in wheat production against a total demand of 30.8 million metric tons, while cotton production has fallen by 40 percent to around 5 million bales in the last decade.
In July last year, Pakistan established a Land Information and Management System, Center of Excellence ((LIMS-CoE) to enhance modern agro-farming by utilizing over 9 million hectares of uncultivated state land, with a senior official saying that Saudi Arabia provided an initial $500 million investment to set up the facility.
Later in the same month, Pakistan Army Chief General Asim Munir, who is a member of the SIFC, and the then prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, inaugurated the nation’s first corporate farm as part of the initiative to modernize agricultural practices in the South Asian country.
Pakistan’s Sindh to grant over 52,000 acres of land to army-backed firm for corporate farming
https://arab.news/r6529
Pakistan’s Sindh to grant over 52,000 acres of land to army-backed firm for corporate farming
- The provincial government has signed an agreement to grant land in six districts for a period of 20 years
- The pact is one of initiatives under Special Investment Facilitation Council’s umbrella to boost agriculture
UN says 270,000 Afghans have returned from Iran, Pakistan this year
- UNHCR says 110,000 Afghans returned from Iran while 160,000 returned from Pakistan since start of 2026
- Return numbers seem to have risen since Gulf war erupted on Feb. 28, says UNHCR official in Afghanistan
GENEVA: Some 270,000 Afghans have returned to their country from Pakistan and Iran so far this year, the UN said Tuesday, warning that the escalating Middle East war risked pushing the numbers higher.
UNHCR, the United Nations’ refugee agency, said that 110,000 Afghans had returned from Iran and another 160,000 had returned from Pakistan since the start of 2026.
And the numbers seem to have risen since the Middle East erupted on February 28, with the United States and Israel unleashing a barrage of strikes on Iran, and Tehran responding with drone and missile strikes on Israeli and US interests across the region.
Since then, there have been some 1,700 returns from Iran to Afghanistan each day, Arafat Jamal, UNHCR’s representative in Afghanistan, told reporters in Geneva.
Speaking from Islam Qala, on the Afghan-Iranian border, he said the situation there was “deceptively calm.”
“Returns are orderly but freighted with tension and apprehension,” he said, adding that with the hostilities elsewhere escalating, “I do fear there is more to come.”
“We are preparing for massive returns.”
He pointed out that Afghanistan was “facing the ramifications of what is happening with Iran,” while clashes have erupted along the Afghan border with Pakistan.
The new Middle East war, he warned, was “layering itself on top of an existing war on another frontier,” Jamal said.
UNHCR highlighted that the latest crises came after returns to Afghanistan had already been “exceptionally high” in recent years.
More than five million Afghans had returned from neighboring countries in the past two years, including 1.9 million returning from Iran last year alone.
Jamal warned that “many Afghan families are now facing cycles of displacement: first forced to flee Afghanistan, later displaced again inside Iran due to conflict, and now returning once more to Afghanistan.”
“And upon return in Afghanistan, the triply-displaced enter a spiral of precarity and uncertainty.”
Returns from Pakistan had meanwhile stabilized in recent weeks, as the main crossing point at Torkham remained closed due to the tensions there, Jamal said.
But he warned that “movements could increase sharply once the border reopens.”
UNHCR and the UN children’s agency UNICEF said Tuesday they were working to strengthen their capacity to operate at the borders and within Afghanistan.
But “given the scale of returns and the financial constraints facing humanitarian operations, additional support will be needed if arrivals increase,” UNHCR said, without specifying the amount needed.
