Denied: The right to own land

The brutal and heavy-handed treatment by police in Khanewal of a peaceful rally, taken out recently by peasants demanding ownership rights to land they have been tilling for decades, is most unfortunate and unwarranted. According to reports, several of the peasants were jailed along with their leader and excessive force was used on them, given that the demonstration was entirely peaceful. Several questions arise here. Why did the police come down so heavily on the peasants when they were not armed or doing anything threatening. Of course, the one good thing about the whole incident is that it shows there is a clear sense of awareness in peasants and that they are willing to voice it. Also, it is perhaps indicative of a change in societal attitudes, in that, finally, the most underprivileged section of society seems to have awoken to the denial by large landowners of their basic right to own land.

Clearly, clamping down on the expression of this awareness by the peasants is not going to solve anything and will only lead to further resentment and frustration, and protests. Of course, it should be remembered that this kind of brutal response happened during the time of the previous government as well, in Okara, when local landless peasants demonstrated — and very rightly so — in favour of land ownership rights. The Rangers were called into action then and force was used to suppress the peasants. The only thing that achieved was that it exposed the brute ugly face of the establishment, since much of the land that the peasants wanted ownership of was under the control of the military. According to credible estimates, around a third of the country’s farmers are tenant farmers and give approximately half of their produce to landlords. This is nothing more than a modern form of indentured labour and serves to reinforce the grip of the landowners. This needs to change and one hopes that the peasants of Khanewal will be able to achieve this.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 01^st, 2011.