May 30, 2008	Friday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 24, 1429

KARACHI, May 29: Speakers at a consultative meeting on Thursday stressed the need for a review of the outdated law of tenancy which they said had outlived its usefulness.

The moot “Updating Sindh Tenancy Act 1950” was jointly organised by the Bhandar Hari Sangat and Actionaid. The meeting was attended by the members of the farmers’ fraternity and two members of the Sindh Assembly.

The speaker of the Sindh Assembly, Nisar Khuhro, was scheduled to attend the meeting as chief guest but for reasons best known to him he did not show up and did not even inform the organisers about his plan. Due to this very reason, the organisers kept the audience waiting for over a couple of hours.

Speakers were of the view that the tenancy act enacted around five decades ago was no longer effective enough to resolve the issues emerging due to the fast-changing situation.

An idea floated by the representatives of the farmers’ community, which was also backed by the members of the Sindh Assembly— some of them landed aristocrats —was the setting up of separate peasant courts under the judiciary. They argued that under the current system, the farmer-landlord disputes were heard by revenue officials who could easily be influenced by the landlord.

The former chief of the Sindh Assembly’s Special Committee on Tenancy Act set up by the previous government to recommend amendments to the law, MPA Anwer Ali Mahar, informed the audience that most of the work on the issue was completed but since the tenure of the assembly ended, it could not be presented for further proceedings.

He, however, hoped that the exercise would be resumed and soon the recommendations, which could be further fine-tuned, would be presented in the assembly and soon the act would be amended.

Mr Mahar regretted that the previous government did not give due priority to this issue, which was critical for the majority of the rural population, as the first committee, which among others also included the senior minister, could not hold even a single meeting in which the chairman could be elected during over four years of its existence.

MPA Pir Amjad Jilani said that the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) was committed to giving government land to landless farmers, particularly their female counterparts. He recalled it was the PPP that had introduced land reforms twice and the land thus obtained was handed over to the farmers.

He said that farmers and landlords were integral components of agriculture, which could progress only when both worked judiciously keeping in mind each others’ rights and responsibilities.

Earlier, Khadim Thebo said although the mechanisation of agriculture had increased the output, per acre yield was far less than many other countries. He, however, pointed out that modernisation of agricultural procedures has had rendered many farmers unemployed.

He said that the agro-based industry should be encouraged so that unemployed farmers could be absorbed into it. He observed that satisfied workers, including the farmers, would help increase the output, which in turn would benefit both the farmers as well as the landlords and in the process the country would ultimately benefit.

Speaking about the changed farming practices, Prof Shahab Mughal said that tractors had replaced bulls and many other technologies had been introduced. In such a situation, he said, the farmers should be provided with social security and other privileges on the lines of other industrial workers.

Ishaq Mangrio said that various sections of the tenancy act and the labour laws were not in conformity with internationally- accepted basic human rights and he feared that unless these were reviewed sanctions on agricultural as well as industrial products from the country could be imposed.

A farmer leader, Tajumal Bheel, demanded that farmers’ names be listed in the revenue record, no free work be taken from the farmers and they should be provided with health, education, and social security net, etc.

He also urged the relevant authorities to ensure farmers’ representation in the decision making forums so that they could protect their rights. Mr Bheel also stressed the need for a transparent system through which bank loans and other facilities provided by the government reached the farmers and not to the landlords, who according to him availed all these facilities in the name of farmers under the current system.

Earlier, the organisers of the meeting, Adam Malik, Ramzan Memon, and, Taj Marri, said that the process of dialogues with the farmers in as many as 10 districts – Tando Mohammad Khan, Tando Allahyar, Umerkot, Mirpurkhas, Sanghar, Nawabshah, Dadu, Qambar, Shikarpur and Hyderabad – had been started to get their input over the proposed amendments to the act.

They said that some of the suggestion that had so far been received were that loans given to the farmers be recovered only from the revenue generated through cash crop, farmer’s name be registered in the revenue record, right of the farmer be guaranteed even after the change of the land’s ownership, tenancy rights of a deceased farmer (regardless of his/her religion) be devolved to the heirs, tenancy rights should continue even if the cultivation was done by the tenant’s family members, no free labour be taken from the farmer, cases relating to the act be decided within 30 days, hari (peasant) courts with appeal rights to the higher civil courts be set up, punishment be awarded keeping in view of the accused, etc.

Photo Rustamani, Shahina Ramzan, Imran Qureshi, and others also spoke.