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Land Reform Act being amended
ISLAMABAD: The Constitution is being amended to bring about
changes into the Land Reform Act-1977 to do away with the 25
year-old land ceiling clause of 100 acres of land to
accommodate the multinational companies to cultivate thousands
of acres of land in the country, it is learnt.
The Agriculture Ministry officials told this correspondent
here on Thursday that the change in the Constitution would be
brought in the light of federal cabinet's decision to
introduce corporate farming in the country, whose basic point
was to abolish the land ceiling clause to enable the
multinational and other investors to invest their resources in
the country.
Under the 1977 Act, an individual can have only 100 acres of
land in the irrigated and 200 acres of land in the
un-irrigated areas. The purpose of this Act was to spread the
fruits of land reforms to the deprived sections of farming
community. This Land Reforms Act clause is a major hurdle in
the way of introduction of corporate farming as the policy
envisages no land ceiling for the investors who will be
investing their resources in this new sector.
The first land reforms were instituted in Pakistan in 1959
that addressed the problem of big land ownership and revenue
free estates. It also focused on the abolition of revenue free
estates (Jagirs), security to tenure to tenants, imposition of
ceiling on land ownership of 500 acres land of irrigated and
1,000 acres of un-irrigated land or equivalent of 36,000
produce index units etc.
The second land reform was introduced in 1972. These were not
confined merely to reduction of size of permissible holdings
but had many other agriculture reforms. The permissible
ceiling on land ownership under land reforms regulations of
1959 was reduced by 70 per cent. The new ceiling prescribed
was 12,000 PIU or 150 acres of irrigated or 300 un-irrigated
land. Owners with tractor or tubewells were allowed to keep
additional 2,000 PIUs.
The third and the last land reforms in Pakistan were
instituted in 1977. The main provision in these reforms was a
reduction of ceiling on land ownership to two third level of
1972. Resultant ceiling were 100 acres of irrigated and 200
acres of un-irrigated land equivalent to 8,000 produce index
units.
Courtesy Dawn
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Pakissan.com;
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