Agrarian reform policies: Land reforms prove hard nut to crack for political parties

At seminar, no leader from any major party gave concrete land reform solutions, only rhetoric.

ISLAMABAD:

Concrete measures on land reforms seemed to be an anathema for four political parties on Tuesday, as not a single party came up with genuine solutions to problems facing the agriculture sector.

“Abolishing the medieval feudal system, empowering farmers, and better policies for peasants” were among the many vague and oft-repeated terms used in a seminar on “Land and Agrarian Reforms on Political Agenda of Pakistan: Critical Review of Election Manifesto”, held at a local hotel on Tuesday.

The seminar was organised by Society for Conservation and Protection of Environment (SCOPE) in collaboration with National Peasants Coalition of Pakistan, Oxfam Novib, Land Watch Asia, Drynet, International Land Coalition and ANGOC International.

Taj Haider of the Pakistan Peoples Party, Haji Adeel of the Awami National Party and Sidiqul Farooq from the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz went off-track from their manifestoes and instead discussed their past achievements and atrocities committed by opposition parties and state agents.

Although they all agreed on the need for new land and agrarian reforms after coming to power in the next general elections, specific details were fleeting.

Abid Hassan Minto, Chairman of the Awami Workers Party, said it is the acts of richest class, particularly feudal lords, which are responsible for the economic instability in Pakistan.

“We have filed an appeal in the Supreme Court of Pakistan seeking a review of the Shariat Bench decision that declared land reforms against Shariat law. A decision in the case is likely in April.”

He said democracy will be never able to flourish in Pakistan as long as the feudal system exists.

Adeel of the ANP said his party is determined to bring land and agriculture reforms in the country, but political will is mandatory for this.

He lamented that Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa has been deprived of industrial growth because it faces load shedding for as long as 18 hours-a-day. “Our province produces 5,000 to 6,000 mega watts of power, but in return it is tormented by loadshedding, which has badly affected socioeconomic growth in the province.”

PTI representative Shahid Zia was of the view that the feudal system could not bring any positive change in the country and it is eroding Pakistan like a cancer. He stressed the need to bring land and agrarian reforms in the country to provide relief to poor farmers.

He said PTI would bring land and agrarian reforms if comes to power in next general elections and it would computerise Pakistan’s land records. He also highlighted the low literacy rate in rural areas and said no steps have been taken to create jobs in these areas.

Farooq vowed to bring land reforms if his party comes to power. “We will provide small loans to farmers, particularly women,” while noting that the PML-N had distributed land among deserving farmers in 1997.

MQM leader Haider Abbas Rizvi said his party is “the sole party in the country that had brought a bill on land reforms in parliament.”

Rizvi said it is ironic that no one debated the bill and it is still in pending in the assembly. “Over 70 per cent of the landlords sit in the assemblies, so obviously, they will not allow any land reforms.”

Taj Haider said water logging and salinity is badly affecting agriculture land and the PPP government built eight small dams on the Indus River to address this.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 3^rd, 2013.