Land Reforms: A Landlord's Perspective

The average income of a small trader or a restaurant owner in Karachi is much higher than that of many big landlords

Ahan.

The main difference is that the landlord tries to maintain a certain standard of living and therefore lives an ostentatious lifestyle and hence appears to be very wealthy

U mean to say.. all that excess wealth is a lie? Ahan.

Would the various learned writers on this subject agree to letting the workers have a share in all the respective industries and businesses where they work?

Yes. It`s called profit sharing.

all over the world it is the local who runs and primarily a local with sufficient means to pay for the enormous election expenses.

And those means come from making less than restaurant owners?
So how many restaurant owners run in elections from your district? Must be quite a few, since they`re obviously richer.

The reality of life is that the poor villager votes for his landlord not under coercion, but because he needs the support of the landlord to prevent him from all sorts of oppression. The first thing that a poor villager looks for is protection from the high handedness of the police, secondly he looks for someone who can provide him protection from dacoits and other villagers who may be of threat to him and thirdly to have a notable provide quick justice by acting in the form of an arbitrator in case of family or property disputes.

U mean he has a choice between the devil and the deep blue sea.

The primary reasons for low productivity are; lack of mechanization, irregular supply of water, expensive pesticides and fertilizer and reluctance on the part of the farm worker to use modern farming techniques and mechanization

Well, naturally there would be a shortage of machinery, irregular water supplies and fetilizers na... considering that landlords who make less than restaurant and boutique owners are running for elections which require mucho capital.

Reduction in the size of the land holdings will do nothing other than reduce the total productivity, as poor farmers will lack the necessary resources to provide the necessary inputs.

But wait! Are u saying.. the poor farmers are supposed to be buying all this needed machinery themselves? Ah! I C I C...

In countries like the United States and Canada the average land holding is between 2000 and 3000 acres

Accha, so u r saying that the size of Sindh is comparable to the size of Canada, therefore u should have 1:1 ratio of land holdings for landowners in Sindh versus landowners in whole of Canada. I C I C.

Let us stop trying to make agriculturists scapegoats for every ill in our society and try and identify the root causes of the ills in our society.

I fully agree. Let us try to do that. But first dissecting this article.

And why cannot I rate this article? I would like to give it seven stars. Original, insightful, interesting, noteworthy and compelling.

Related as I am to one of Sindh`s agriculturalists, I have to say that everything Mr. Kazi has written in this article is quite true, especially his points about the financial side of it all. Yes, feudals try to maintain a very ostentatious lifestyle but only few of the big guns actually have the cash to back it up. Many others live on credit, or debt. Farming is actually a job with very little security because the workers can make things difficult for the landlord. This article is a good change, not because it defends the lifestyle, but because it honestly describes the ground realities of farming and agriculture in Pakistan today.

Only honestly rich people in Pakistan are either inherently rich or made money in business; others have made money through corruption of one kind or another. A rich feudal, bureaucrat or military officer is obviously through illegal means because farm income or salaries could not be turned into millions in dollars or rupees....period.
My biggest disappointment with feudal class is their indifference to culture. They have contributed nothing over centuries to promote the culture and language of the land they depend and love so much. In this way, they are frozen in time or content with status quo.
The current generation of feudals have started sending their kids abroad insteas of Achison only and this might open their mind up to 21st century and native cultures. They are also diversifying their assets much more now than before because the area of land can not go up while numner of heads in a family do thus making individual share smaller and smaller.
With or without any reforms, the feudalism is dead in various parts of the country and slowly dying in southern Punjab and Sindh too.

You are trying to defend the lord`s castle when it is under no danger of attack. The fact is that our brave military generals (who become instant landlords when they so wish upon retirement), our enlightened landlords (like Bhutto the Hanged, who thought the entire nation was his fiefdom), and other enlightened political leaders (like the mullahs who are now trying to prove that they are actually very enlightened and so should be trusted with power, and lands will hopefully follow; like Nawaz Sharif who bought land at every exit of the motorway in order to become an urban landlord) have no desire to storm this castle. Far from taking away these ill-gotten lands from the landlords, successive governments have failed to even properly tax your unearned wealth.
And dont kid yourself into believing what you write. Landlordism is a cancer for Pakistan as it has been in other countries. Look across the border at land reforms (setting max. land at 6 hectares in Indian Panjab) and see how the tables have been turned: west Panjab, traditionally more prosperous than the east, is lagging behind. Look farther across: Argentina was as wealthy as the US in the 19th century, EXCEPT: the US had small family owned farms and Argentina had landlords. Now the descendants of those landlords are begging in the streets of Buenos Aires, or trying to sneak into the US or Europe. And US is the number one economy of the world.

PORPTY;I STHEFTS!!!!!!!!!!!!

Longliving Revolutions! Runningdoggies cpatliston!

I have a basic question which is nothing to do with economics of land reform.

How can people who have been living for many generations on some land (along with the animals, the trees and the soil which their landlord claims ownership to) be considered in the 21st century to be only cogs in the agricultural production machine, whose right to a just destiny of their choice on the land of their birth is to be decided purely on the basis of their economic worth as agricultural workers to their landlord at this point of time?

Do people and their identification and connection with the land of their forefathers come first, or the economics of farming comes first?

Shahzad,

There are times I have to agree even with a pakistani, and this is one instance. I do support the view that one of the great service provided by the feudals is instant justice as you correctly point out and are truly proud of. Below is a letter to the editor from dawn of today. It ends by asking the question what kind of people pakistanis have elected to rule them. Now add this from me, what kind of education that has been given to pakistanis that it produces a writer like shashzad kazi.


This refers to the report (Oct 19) according to which a landlord in Mailsi (southern Punjab) shaved the head and eyebrows of a mother of eight, after the decision taken by the local panchayat.

They then dragged the unfortunate woman half-naked across the streets after severely beating her up. This brutal action was carried after the complaint of her husband but she was not allowed to give her version.

This incident has happened when Muslims have been accused of being extremists and not treating the women well.

Let`s see what reaction comes from the MMA leaders. The MMA has promised to bring reforms in the country and wants to bring things in conformity with the injunctions of Islam. If they show silence on this inhuman incident, then the people of Pakistan should realize what kind of leaders they have elected to rule them.

AKIF

Karachi

Mr Kazi:

You say that:

1. “The average income of a small trader or a restaurant owner in Karachi is much higher than that of many big landlords. The main difference is that the landlord tries to maintain a certain standard of living and therefore lives an ostentatious lifestyle and hence appears to be very wealthy.”

Question: Where do you get the money from to live a lifestyle that “appears” to be very wealthy?

I bet that a small trader in Karachi would love to live a life-style only a tenth of yours. But maybe he’s not smart as you, for he probably wastes all his money on something totally useless such as food, clothing, and rent. And those tillers…well, you give them seventy percent of your revenue and what they do with it?…probably smoke charas and drink Johnny Walker Black and Chevas Regal (25-year old, mind you) and pass out after tilling “your” land rather than using the money wisely and living a life-style to match yours, or even better than yours since they get more money than you. Dumb idiots they are, I say…maybe you should do something to straighten them out…like beat them up or something…otherwise they won’t listen…

2. You make it sound as if you, meaning the landlords, are the benign, well-meaning shepherds to the innocent little sheep (read the tillers of the land). Without you the shepherds, the sheep will be run over and eaten by the wolves. Hence, you are their protector and savior. They love you for what you do for them, you imply. Fine and dandy. But unless we hear the other side of how they view you, the landlords, we will really not know what you are trying to defend is true or not.

I see some people at Chowk clapping, applauding and bowing to you, the landlords, for being so good to the tillers and doing a job of a saint, and speaking nothing but the truth…

I think it is very unfair for Chowk to publish this article without presenting a view from the tillers…but who should speak for them?… tough luck!…if they are not heard then they must not have any problems…probably living a good life smoking and drinking…and life goes on…

Bina: There are two sacred cows and two pigs in Pakistan. Once it comes to scapegoating or fall guys, both sacred cows hide behind two pigs. Pigs are essential to take care of garbage that is not suitable feed for the cows. Moreover, pigs can not be killed because pork is not part of cow`s diet otherwise cows would have eaten them by now. One of the pig is kept lean and the other one fat so that they both have reason to suspect each other to be cows favorite. Sometime feudals are fat pigs and corrupt politicians lean ones as is the case right now with fat pigs in PML (Q) and career politicians biting the dust; other times the positions are reversed as in the past.
The modus operandi of one of the cow is parasitic while other likes virus style. The system innocently works for virus one patient is infected and in the case of parasite, powerful claws help keep hanging on to the host until host is sucked dry.
This is Pakistani bible according to Muslim, Military, Feudal and Politicans.

By the way the trader/businessman hardly pays any taxes either (like most of our society). Their money is kept in overseas accounts while most zamindars live off borrowed money.

There are actually very few landlords that are ``wealthy``. Most of those who actually have a lot of money have earned it through means other than agriculture. There are businessmen who show their income as agricultaural, there are corrupt bureaucrats who do the same and then there may be some zamindars who are involved in not so legit activities.

I have a question here for sadna; If you live in a rented appartment for 210 or 20 years, should be be proclaimed the owner?

re: Jay # 7

We just lynched two human beings for reasons that no one but the most regressive can understand.

What education are WE providing OUR people?

pakfin #13
What if I was already in the apartment when the landlord was granted or claimed ownership.

Land has been the earliest and most basic source of sustenance for humans, much before the concept of land ownership came into being.

Could someone please tell us what the phrase ``Land Reforms`` mean to them - especially those people who consider feudalism/landownership the mother of all evils (other than religion). I understand the commie philosophy, which meant that the state owns the land, but since this religion is dead now, then what is land reform means now - No bile or acerbic vitriole plz (if you could help it). Thank you.

Sadna, if you were already in the apartment but did not own it then you were an illegal occupant in the first place. Are you claiming squatters rights to ownership or are you a proponent of communism/socialism?