Equal distribution: Leaders, activists support land reforms

Social activists at the event urged politicians to support land reforms.


Our Correspondent October 22, 2012

KARACHI:


Political parties should include land reforms in their manifestoes for the next general election to make sure land is equally distributed, said Pakistan Fishermen Forum Chairperson Mohammad Ali Shah on Saturday.


He was speaking at a consultation on Sharing Land Rights and Social Protection by the Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research.

Social activists at the event urged politicians to support land reforms, demanding that security services should be provided to labourers in the agriculture sector.  “Peasants and home-based workers should be able to avail social security facilities,” said Latif Mughal from the Pakistan People’s Party. “The floods over the years have affected the economy of Sindh and labourers have been suffering financially.”

Syed Sardar Ahmed of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement said that his party has submitted a bill for land reforms in the National Assembly. “Influential landlords are not paying income tax. The feudal mindset which does not care for the welfare of the workers should be changed.”

Leader of Pakistan Muslim League-Functional, Khair Mohammad Junejo, supported amendments in the Sindh Tenancy Act 1950. “Several years ago, the Sindh Assembly formed a committee to propose amendments in the Act, but the draft bill has not been presented before the house as yet.”  He, however, denied that landlords were not paying income tax. Senior development economist Dr Aly Ercelan said that the Agriculture Census 2010 indicates structural deprivation in rural Sindh. He pointed out that poverty in Sindh has increased as the National Nutrition Survey conducted by UNICEF and Aga Khan University in 2012 has given worrisome results about the province, where malnutrition is the highest.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 22nd,  2012.

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