“Land reforms is the hammer to weak feudalism”
Agriculture is significant on three counts, firstly it provide food security, Secondly being an agricultural economy it is responsible for the uplift of GDP on monetary basis, Thirdly it comprises 40 percent of the active labor force. However, the trends have been diminishing. A comprehensive agriculture policy will not only embrace the agriculture sector but also facilitate economic stability across the country. Considering the agrarian nature of our society land prescribed as jugular vein of Pakistan’s economy. In our society, land can be a symbol of power, capital, wealth and livelihood, and provide social leverage. Land is home to many activities. Before partition Pakistan was home to many princely states working under the Monarch of British supremacy. In the past, land distribution by the heads for political and economic gains was not a cliché. With the passage of time the concept synthesized and gave birth to feudal land lords, holding large amount of land. According to a survey 4 percent of affluent elites hold nearly half of the cultivated land of Pakistan.
“For Asia, the path to prosperity starts with land reform.” (The Economist)
The biggest obstacle to Pakistan’s development is the countries rural sector, which is plagued by the wide spread poverty, increasing unemployment, widening income disparities, and unequal access to health and education. The majority of these issues stem primarily, if not entirely, from the unequal distribution of land ownership with some holding most of it and some remain landless. To cure these unjustified distributions land reforms were introduced. Land reforms facilitate land market and increase private land ownership and ensure the security of tenants. In a country like Pakistan were more than sixty percent of population lives in rural areas, a comprehensive Land reform policy will boost the disparities and narrow the gap between status quo. Talking of agriculture’s rejuvenation without land reform will be like entering a race with a cart that has no horse before it.
In Pakistan, land reforms were implemented in the 1960s and 1970s to ensure an equal distribution of land ownership and to break status quo. Changes in legislation, authority and customs relating to the interrelationship of land owners, tenants, and their land were part of the reforms. Bhutto in his election manifesto challenged the Ayub’s reforms and rejected the land holding ceilings. After coming to power, Bhutto abolished the previous land ceiling of 500 acres for irrigated and 1000 for un-irrigated land, setting the new bars at 150 acres for irrigated and 300 for un-irrigated land. This was a remarkable effort to break the imbalanced land concentration in few hands. Under Bhutto’s later years the ceilings were further reduced to 100acres for irrigated land. This was done for the effective and progressive relation of owners and tenants. The ouster of Bhutto regime marked the demise of Zimindari and Sardari system. Surprisingly East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) has abolished feudal aristocracy in the early years, with no landlord in the Constituent assembly of 1954–56, quite the opposite for West Pakistan, where most of the prominent politicians are from affluent aristocratic background. The topic of land reforms always evokes uproar in Pakistan. Court in its verdict declared land reforms unconstitutional and un-Islamic. This judgment came out during the face off of Chief land commissioner and Qazalbash waqaf case.
The result of the land reforms in both East and West Pakistan were quite opposite. East Pakistan shifted towards urban centered economy and abolished landlord culture. Whereas in West, we still have forty percent of labor force still engaged in rural sector. Many land lords earned huge compensations from the state and transferred their lands to their offspring’s, wives and relatives. Impact of land reforms made dead and infants owners to large landownership, making feudal still the owner of the land and their influence over peasants and tenants remain undamaged. We should give credit where it is due, Land reforms also brought increase in per acre productivity and boosted the agriculture sector, and use of latest agriculture technology became evitable.
Many absentee landowners facilitated land distribution as they enjoy income without even residing or cultivating land, as a result income disparity enhanced. This became a well praised trend in elite community and a simplest way to earn; tenants on the other hand for 365 days a year and still get a small share from the revenues of the land.
Agrarian reforms often counter to the relationship between urbanization and agricultural development, many past policies have benefited urban areas on the expense of rural sector, thus affecting the rural economy and making it fragile and handicapped the rural progress. This demand pull unemployed a vast portion of labor force which were associated with agriculture and possessed no specific skill and urbanization is purely skill based. Lack of skill followed by imperfect knowledge of opportunities is some formidable deterrents. A solution to diminishing rural sector can be Cooperative agriculture, privatization of agriculture sector may stop the migration of rural labor force but it will also only fill the pockets of the rich and lords, making the peasants and tenants stagnant of their economic class.
PTI’s 2013 election manifesto included slogans of “Our poverty reduction by rural land reforms,” as significant number of rural households owns a minimum specified land area. Five years later, the party’s 2018 manifesto dropped the plan and any mention of it being there in first place.
Written by: Muhammad Mazhar Rauf
Author is P.hd Scholar.
