The first thing to understand is that cantts are not built on 'purchased land' i.e. Army or govt willl not buy any land to built a cantt, it is not DHA(where land is purchased properly and then commercialized, and if someone feels dejected by DHAs and want to vomit more hate, i suggest him/her to go through this:
Xeric's Primer: We Dont Seek Benevolence, But Dont Malign us Either Part I
Govt land classified as A1, A2, A3, B1,B2, C1, C3 etc is utlized if a military setup is to be constructed.This already belong to GoP and had been further given to MinDef who further maintain it through cantt borads and cantt executive officers (CEOs).
A station HQ i.e. Military involvemnet will only happen once a cantt has been made and the area has been handed over to the military. This land is for all the services and not for only for te army. The purpose/utilization of land can be as follows:
- Land on which military installations are to b built
- Military residential areas
- Land required for training by military Etc etc
So no one is going to 'purcahse' the land from poor Swatis and deprive them of their rights. Yes, may be a piece here or there has to be purchased for the obvious reasons, but it wouldnt mean that te Army will b going on a shopping spree and forcing people to sell their land. (The taikedars paropagting this should hav opened theur beaks when Nawaz sharif purchased 1000s of acre of land near Changa Manga and forced people to sell it).
i dont understand why would anybody have an issue with a cantt? It is Pakistan's Army and it can be settled anywhere in Pakistan , the govt dont require sanctions and will not ask for permissions, but yes, people's reservtions, if any, must and will be looked into.
i remeber, when Pano Aqill cantt was being constructed, there was a time that tanks were placed to ward off the protestors, but if you ask Aqlians now, they cant imagine a life without the cantt as most of thier economy is dependant on tge cantt.
Nowshehra , a small town is only know because military presence in Arty School, Armour School, PAFAcademy etc. I remeber AC Nowshehra cribbing that 'yaar idhar Daewoo ka adda nahi hai, bari mushkik hoti hai anay janay mai', but the next time i went there, Daewoo had a terminal near arty school. Now we didnt ask for it, but then with military came people who woul travel, and thus now peopl of nowshehra had a facility which they had longed for but couldnt have it, though they tried thu best by approaching Daewoo from one channel to anotger.
Same is true for Okara, Daewoo terminal is near tge cantt gates, and not Okara city. Now haters might even take this as negative by saying that why isnt the terminal there in the city, but what they dont know is that the Army didnt ask for Daewoo, but Daewoo knows from where they can fill their seats, and thus even if they wee not redy to have a terminal in Okara city previously, but now out of compulsion they had to make on in Okara, though near the cantt. Still it is better than not having one, if you ask the people of Okara.
Stupid assertions like 'hey, Army will besige us', 'they will capture our land', etc are just propaganda waiting to fail, as there exists no such thing. It is just as people were fed lies that Army consumes 80% of national budget or Army officers are givn free of cost plots or they dont have to pay utility bills etc.
i would have expected better assertions from 'educated' people, but alas, that wasnt meant to happen.
and she introduced us to the Pakistani in the neighborhood and picked and dropped us from hostel for dinner parties and stuff....ahhhh some of my best days in UK were with these families! 
