Land reform in pakistan

Land reform in pakistan

• 1.
  Land reform inPakistan Land reform:  Re-distribution of land amongst small land owners by expropriating land from large land owners.  breaking up large land holdings and thereby changing the pattern of land ownership to stop the concentration of land in a selected few hands.
• 2.
  Why Land Reformis important  Society has peculiar social economic and political consequences.  Society becomes stratified.  Manorial system hampers social progress and landless peasants remain politically weak.  therefore unable to seek solutions to the problems.  Concentration of land is deemed as an undesirable to social and economic equality.
• 3.
  Land reforms 1947-49 The first government review of land reforms was tackled in the province of Sind in 1947.  the Government Hari Enquiry Committee declared that:  The Haris’ problems are of the their own creation or natural problems.  the landlord is in fact a friend of the Hari and land reform is deemed undesirable and even a loss for the Hari.  However, One member of the committee dissented and his minute of dissent was not published until April, 1949.  The dissenter, Muhammad Masud wrote that:  The condition of Haris is deplorable.  the differences between the landlord and Hari is too unfair.
• 4.
   His recommendations: Abolishment of manorial system  Expropriation of land from landlords.  And that absolute ownership of land be vested in the State.  After publishing the notice The Pakistan Muslim League constituted a five member committee,  The committee presented its report in June 1949,  It proposed short term measures include the reduction in share of owner from share croppers.  The long term measures proposed included restriction on large land ownership and expropriation of land that excess the limit of maximum land holding.
• 5.
   The recommendationon land holdings was 150 acres for irrigated and 450 acres for un-irrigated land.  The committee was undecided on the issue of land redistribution.  The proposed short term measure was implemented in Sind, Punjab and NWFP between 1950 and 1952.  But nothing was done to help the farmers of Baluchistan and the princely states (Bahawalpur, Khairpur, etc.).
• 6.
  Ayub Khan’s reforms1959 Recommendations included:-  A ceiling of 500 acres for irrigated and 1000 acres for un- irrigated land.  Land was to be redistributed amongst to tenants already cultivating the land.  Permanent proprietary rights to occupancy tenants.  Idea of “subsistence holdings” of no less than 50 acres was proposed.  However, Ghulam Ishaq Khan was dissented with the majority opinion on the land ceiling.  He proposed the ceiling of 150 and 450 acres of irrigated/un- irrigated land for individuals and 300/900 acres limit for families (irrigated/un-irrigated).
• 7.
  Effect of 1959reforms  The recommendations were put into force through the Martial Law Regulation No. 64 on February 7, 1959.  2.5 million acres of land was resumed,.  2.3 million of it distributed amongst 183,271 tenants and small owners.  The resumed land was around of 4.5 % of the total cultivable land in Pakistan.  just 0.65 million acres was distributed amongst the farmers who had holdings below subsistence level (12.5 acres).  The government overtook only 35% of the holdings.  In 1947, Less than 1% of farm owners control more than 25% of agricultural land.  After the 1959 reforms, less than 8.5% of farm owners control more than 42% of agricultural land.  However, average holding per landlord was still 7,208 acres in Pakistan and 11,810 acres in Punjab due to the state’s inefficiency.
• 8.
  ZAB and LandReforms  He promulgated on March 1, 1972, Martial Law Regulation No. 115 of 1972, often called Land Reforms Regulation 1972.  The ceiling on land holdings was lowered to 150 and 300 acres for irrigated and un-irrigated land respectively.  The reforms failed to produce the expected results.  A second wave of reforms were introduced through the Land Reforms Ordinance, 1977.  Ceiling on land holdings was reduced to 100 acres for irrigated land and 200 acres for un-irrigated land.
• 9.
  Effect of the1972 and 1977 reforms Under the 1972 reform:  1.3 million acres of land was resumed.  0.9 million of that was distributed amongst 76,000 beneficiaries. Under the 1977 reform:  another 1.8 million acres of land was resumed.  0.9 million acres was distributed amongst 13,143 beneficiaries.  By the end of the Ayub Khan and Bhutto’s measures had benefited only 272,000 out of the total 10 million eligible rural population.  Only 4.5 million acres of cultivated land (less than 10% of the total) were redistributed.
• 10.
  Legal Problems andfate of Land Reforms  On 5 July 1977, Zia ul Haq overthrew the government of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto.  He brought with him the notion of Islamization.  He created the Federal Shariat Court (FSC) for the first time.  Aim being to review whether a law is repugnant to the injunctions of Islam.  FSC created Shariat Benches in the High Courts and Supreme Court.  Qazalbash Waqf it claimed that its possession of hundreds of acres of land was merely to serve humanity.  In total, 67 Shariat petitions were filed in various courts challenging the land reform legislations.
• 11.
   The majorityjudgment held that fixing a ceiling on land holdings was not adverse to Islamic law.  But the Peshawar High Court declared the ceiling on land holdings as un-Islamic.  After 12 years in 1989 the Appeals were filed and final decision was delivered to judgment of the “Shariat Appellate Bench” of the Supreme Court of Pakistan.  The judgment was split 3-2 in favour of declaring the various questions raised on land reforms as un-Islamic.  The two ulema judges had opinion that land reform was un- Islamic.  Mufti Muhammad Taqi Usmani arguing that the land reform legislation was repugnant to the injunctions of Islam, he states:-
• 12.
   Individual propertyrights in Islam are the same as rights over other categories like goods.  Islam has imposed no quantitative limit (ceiling) on land or any other commodity that can be owned by a person.  If the state imposes a permanent limit on the amount of land which can be owned by its citizen, then such an imposition of limit is completely prohibited by the Shariah.  The order to spend surplus on the poor is not a mandatory order which can be normally enforced by the state.  The objective of the Islamic welfare system is the sustenance of the poor. The state’s welfare role is limited.  The dissenters on the bench, based their opinion on the concept of social welfare and equality in the Islamic state.