The issue of land reforms is an issue of landless peasants.
LAHORE: It is unfortunate that rural Pakistan is paying the cost of the misperceptions of our urban activists for many years. I don’t at all doubt their sincerity but I do wish they would correct their analysis of the situation. The issue of land reforms is an issue of landless peasants. In the 1970s, there were movements by peasants for land reforms and even for the rights of sharecroppers, which were, in turn, supported by political movements, trade unions, journalists and other professional organisations. There was social and political ownership of the issue of land reforms in the 1970s and because of that political pressure, every political party was talking about the issue. Social and political mobilisation and organisation of peasants and landless population in favour of land reforms will ensure that such reforms actually happen. This is not a legal issue but one that is wholly political in nature and can hence be achieved through a political platform.
Furthermore, success on issues related to land reforms such as regulation of marketing of agricultural produce, prices of agricultural inputs and regulation of irrigation water is possible through political mobilisation.
Adam Malik
Published in The Express Tribune, November 25th, 2013.
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