Progressive parties decry SC’s verdict of ‘99 which had declared land reforms un-Islamic.
The Awami Workers Party (AWP) on Friday held a protest demonstration outside the Rawalpindi Press Club demanding land reforms in the country, said a press release.
Dozens of AWP activists were joined by representatives of the National Students Federation (NSF), Railway Workers Union (RWU) and a host of other progressive organisations, who were chanting slogans against feudalism, demanding overturning of the Supreme Court Shariat Appellate Bench’s order of 1990, which declared land reforms “unislamic”.
Addressing the protesters, AWP Punjab Secretary-General Aasim Sajjad said that the National Assembly had passed a law in 1977 whereby a land ceiling was imposed on both irrigated (100 acres) and barani- rain fed (200 acres) lands across the country. However, this law was superseded by a 1990 decision of the Supreme Court which had declared land reforms ‘unIslamic’.
The AWP leaders said that Pakistani society has been destroyed by the ‘cynical’ use of Islam by the establishment to deny working class and the oppressed their fundamental rights.
“Land reforms are crucial if democracy has to take roots in Pakistan and that is why it is essential that the 1977 legislation is restored,” they demanded.
The AWP leaders also slammed the rhetoric of mainstream politicians who had been decrying “feudalism” without taking practical steps inside or outside parliament to break the stranglehold of big land holders on Pakistani politics.
AWP Information Secretary Nisar Shah, AWP Rawalpindi Convener Masud-ul-Hasan, Secretary Shehak Sattar, Islamabad convener Nazish Zahoor and General Secretary NSF Alia Amirali also spoke on the occasion.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 9th, 2013.
