Land Reforms

Land reforms means re-distribution of land from those land lords owning large part of the land to those farmers who dont have any. But its never easy to do land reforms in Pakistan as the political setup completely dominated by elite land lords. Landlords were the most significant class in the Muslim League, comprising 163 of the 503 Muslim League parliamentary members in I942. From the time of independence, all Chief Ministers of the Punjab, Sindh and NWFP were big landlords.

Land Reforms
If the power of landlords prior to 1947 was substantial, the creation of Pakistan increased their power even further. The hold of large landlords on political power can be demonstrated by the provincial elections held in the Punjab in 1951, where they won 80 per cent of the seats, while in the provincial election in Sindh in 1953 large landowners won 90 per cent of seats. Hence the first land reforms in Pakistan were undertaken by a military regime

Land Reforms
Although the reforms set out to break the power of the large landholding class and to make tenancy more humane, their impact was severely limited. Observer Shahid Javed Burki believes that these land reforms were the precursor to the dynamic middleclass farmer of the Green Revolution, who emerged as the main beneficiary of the Basic Democracies system, most other scholars disagree.

The 1959 Land Reforms: Salient Features

Salient features of the Ayub Khan land reforms of 1959: The reforms were meant to put ceilings on land holdings & to change tenancy regulations. About 6000 owners owned more than the ceiling of 500 acres permitted in 1959. They constituted 0.1 per cent of the owners, but owned 7.5 million acres or 15.4 per cent of the total land. Only a small amount of land was handed over, but of that land, more than half (57 per cent) was uncultivated.

The 1959 Land Reforms: Salient Features

A central feature of the 1959 land reforms was that owners were to be paid compensation for their lands, many benefited by handing over poorquality lands to the government. Compensation was paid at rates of Rs. 1-5 per Produce Index Unit (PlU) and in 'fifty half-yearly equated installments in transferable but nonnegotiable bonds bearing 4 per cent per annum interest on unpaid balance.

The 1959 Land Reforms: Salient Features

Another feature of the 1959 reforms was that resumed land was to be sold to landless tenants. By 1967, only 50 per cent of the resumed land had been sold, with only 20 per cent of the resumed land sold to landless tenants. The remainder was auctioned to rich farmers and dvil and military officials. Jagirs were also abolished in 1959. 0.9 million acres were declared as jagir lands, of which onethird were resumed by the government.

The 1959 Land Reforms

Table 3.2 Number of declarants and resumed area under the land reforms regulation of 1959 Province/division Number of declarants Area of affected All Unaffected Affected declarants (acres) Punjab Multan Sargodha Rawalpindi Lahore Bahawalpur 2,152 838 606 249 102 357 1,844 720 504 227 85 308 308 118 102 22 17 49 3,637,648 2,838,325 412,213 148,827 38,813 199,470 Area retained (acres) 2,306,657 1,934,664 165,033 53,019 25,631 128,310 12,650 Area gifted (acres) 288,715 225,411 28,701 9,947 4,008 Area resumed (acres) 1,044,276 672,250 218,479 85,861 9,176 58,510

Sindh
Khairpur Hyderabad Karachi Punjab and Sindh Pakistan

2,38B
1,006 1,375 7 4,540 5,064

1,993
870 1,117 6 3,837 4,301

395
136 258 1 703 763

1,487,253
637,029 642,872 7,352 5,124,901 5,478,945

655,364
368,154 281,220 6,010 2,962,041 3,077,738

169,803
67,903 101,900

662,066
200,972 459,752 1,342

456,518 497,419

1,706,342 1,903,788

The 1959 Land Reforms

The land reforms allowed farmers to have their lands valued in PIUs, up to a maximum of 36,000 PIUs. The PIU is estimated as a measure of the gross value per acre of land by type of soil and was, therefore, seen as a measure of land productivity. However, the measurement of the PlUs was based on pre-partition revenue settlements, which substantially under-reported the true value of the land.

The Bhutto Reforms Of 1972: Salient Features

The philosophy behind the Bhutto reforms was based on the social democratic leanings of the Pakistan People's Party. Ceilings on landholdings: 150 acres irrigated, 300 acres un-irrigated or equivalent of 12,000 PIUs + 2,000 PIUs for tractor and tube well owners. Land resumed from landowners would not receive any compensation, and this land was to be distributed free to landless tenants.

The Bhutto Reforms Of 1972: Salient Features

In addition, all those peasants who had acquired land under the 1959 reforms and had dues outstanding, had their dues written off and were not required to make any further payments. 0.6 million acres were resumed less than the 1959 figure and constituting only 0.001 per cent of the total farm area in the Country. Only 50,548 persons benefited from the redistribution of 308,390 acres during 1972-8. Only 1 per cent of Landless tenants and small owners benefited by these measures.