MPAs, activists demand greater land rights for rural population

Karachi
Several members of the Sindh Assembly, civil society, and labour rights activists have underlined the need for mobilisation of the rural population for getting ownership right of the land.
They demanded that the government land should be distributed among landless peasants on ownership basis.
The issues were deliberated upon at a consultation of the civil society organisations with the Sindh MPAs, organised by the Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research (PILER) on Tuesday.
The members of the Sindh Assembly including Ms. Mahtab Akbar Rashidi (PML-F), Haji Shafi Jamote (PML-N), Ms. Rana Ansar (MQM), Syed Hafeezuddin (PTI), Ms. Sorath Thebo (PML-N) and Ms. Nusrat Abbasi (PML-F) attended the meeting. Prominent among the representatives of the civil society included Karamat Ali, Executive Director of PILER, Dr. Sono Khangharani of Hisar Foundation, Muneer Memon of Society for Secular Pakistan, Ramzan Memon of Bhandar Sangat, Saeed Baloch from Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum, Mumtaz Ali from Research and Development Foundation (RDF), author Zulfiqar Halepoto, Zeenia Shaukat and others.
The participants agreed to hold similar consultations frequently for understanding of the issues and asked the Sindh government to restart the land distribution among landless peasant women. “Much government land is available in Sindh so without wasting any time that land should be distributed among peasants.”
They agreed to join hands for providing land rights to rural people for residential as well as tilling purposes.
The speakers deplored that people in rural Sindh did not have ownership documents of the piece of land where they live for decades and were uprooted anytime from their ancestor’s houses whenever some new housing schemes or other development schemes were launched.
The gathering underlined the need for making new labour and tenancy laws, as well as, implementation of the existing laws in the province. “The peasants were not getting their due share because of political and social influence of landlords.”
In his welcome remarks PILER chief Karamat Ali said due to absence of land reforms in Pakistan, the agriculture land is concentrated in few hands, adding “The condition of peasants has further deteriorated after the independence.”
He quoted the note of dissent by Masood Khaddarposh in Hari Committee Report in 1948 and said the peasants in Sindh were working in the worst conditions at that time and after the partition their social and economic conditions further weakened. Unfortunately, he mentioned, majority of the rulers and legislators come from landlord or feudal families, who are not interested in land reforms and welfare of peasants.
He urged the legislators to amend the Sindh Tenancy Act, which has become obsolete and was not fully implemented.
Pakistan Muslim League- Functional MPA Mahtab Akbar Rashidi said the present provincial assembly has made a number of important laws, including the law for home-based workers, but the main problem in the province was implementation of these laws.
She deplored the bad governance in the province for many years, saying it has increased the problems for common people.
Rashdi recalled that in the past, movements for the tenancy act and land reforms were launched by peasant leaders like Haider Bukhsh Jatoi through mass mobilization, stressing, “There is need for such a spirit of mass mobilisation to launch a public movement for the land rights as the land reforms in the 70s were also half-hearted.”
MPA Rana Ansar said that his party (Muttahida Qaumi Movement is in support of land reforms and had introduced a bill for land reforms in the National Assembly but it was not taken up. She asked the civil society to provide assistance for any new legislation in this regard.
Veteran labour leader Ramzan Memon pointed out that after 18th Amendment the provincial assemblies can now pass their own laws regarding land reforms.
Dr. Sono Khangharani said that majority of the peasants belong to the scheduled caste, who had migrated from various parts of Rajasthan and Gujarat to Sindh for cultivation in agriculture lands after introduction of irrigation system by the British in 1936.
He said after 1965 and 1971 wars, a large number of Hindu landlords had migrated from Thar to India and their agriculture land was declared as ‘enemy propertys.’ “This land should be distributed to landless peasants of the area.”
MPA Sorath Thebo pointed out that rural workers do not get their due remunerations for their work. “The minimum wages are seldom implemented and the government is not interested to improve working conditions,” she maintained.
Pakistan Tehreek-Insaf MPA Syed Hafeezuddin said he has been elected from the industrial area, and contended that besides rural workers the labourers in industries were also facing numerous problems. “The labour areas are less developed and funds are not provided for development schemes in these areas.”