The people of Sindh, since millennia, have been dependent on the lands of the Indus Valley and waters of Indus River
Land grabbing in the name of corporate farming would further aggravated overall poverty and unemployment in the province fueling a profound sense of deprivation among the farming community
Ambassador M. Alam Brohi
The people of Sindh wonder why their lands are being grabbed for corporate farming. This new controversy has been creating wedges between the people of Sindh and the federation since the unconstitutional and unlawful allotment of a large track of agricultural land by the Interim Government of Sindh to Green Pakistan Initiative, GPI – purportedly supported by a federal institution of the country. This has created a new controversy in the federation which is already confronted with deepening political and economic crises. The logic behind such a divisive decision at a time when the country is already gearing up to address many a challenge is unfathomable. The PPP’s provincial administration has been keeping silent on the issue.
The interim government of Sindh accorded approval to the leasing of 52700 acres of cultivable land for corporate farming in different districts of Sindh. As reported by the national press, the institution had solicited lease of agricultural land in the other provinces of the country as well. However, the interim governments of Punjab and KPK were prudent enough to leave this divisive question to the future political governments to be installed as a result of the electoral outcome of the 8th February elections. The haste displayed by the Sindh provincial administration was perplexing. With hind sight, one could see that there was more pressure on the Interim Government of Sindh than the other two Interim provincial administrations. Earlier, the interim administration also had approved lease of 6000 acres of land at Hawkes Bay for the Defence Housing Authority at a throw away price. Earlier, thousands of acres of Sindh land were secured for DHA City and other defence related projects along the highway.
Read: Army-backed firm to get 52,000 acres of Sindh’s land for farming
Recently, a known Journalists, in one of his columns, has estimated the size of the land allocated for the GPI in Sindh at 160,000 acres in the districts of Badin, Sujawal, and Umerkot/Tharparkar. This is a huge track of land and would certainly result in the displacement of a large number of peasant families settled on these lands since generations. The Punjab provincial administration has reportedly postponed the allotment of any land for GPI due to the intense resistance from the farmers settled on these state lands. No allotment of land has been pronounced by the governments of KPK and Balochistan. A known political leader of Balochistan is on record to have said that not a single inch of Baloch land would be allotted for this purpose.
The corporate farming on huge tracts of land in Punjab particularly in Cholistan desert and Sindh would claim a big share from the meager irrigation water resources of Sindh too. The province has chronically faced acute shortage of irrigation waters for “Rabi” season ranging between 15- 20%. This water scarcity, sometimes, registers as high as 35% as it has happened this year with Tarbela and Mangla Dams reaching dead levels. The apportioning of water resources between the existing cultivable lands and the new corporate farming sector would certainly aggravate the shortage of irrigation waters as no new irrigation water resources could be tapped or created without dealing a devastating blow to the existing network of canals and waterways in the province.
Sindh could only be sustained for survival by the irrigation waters of Indus River, and its liberal and tolerant culture. It is already water-stressed because of the natural scarcity of water in the river owing to the climate changes and the evaporation from Taunsa to Guddu Barrage and pilferage of water upstream. Telemetry system for the measurement of the flow of the water as per the IRSA share has never worked properly. The Engineers of WAPDA have been complicit in this water theft. The protests of Sindh Irrigation Engineers have fallen on deaf ears.
The eight canals off taking from the Guddu (Ghotki, Begari, Pat Feeder) and Sukkur Barrages (Rohri, Nara, and Rice, Dadu and Khirthar) should have monthly water supply of over 100,000 cusecs in the cropping season as per the IRSA water share formula whereas these canals have suffered from chronic short water supply of 30,000 to 40,000 cusecs. The command area of three of the above eight canals (Khirthar, Begari and Pat Feeder) includes Nasirabad, Dera Murad Jamali and Sibbi divisions. The shortage of water would equally ruin the agriculture in these divisions.
It is argued that the water flowing into the Sea downstream Kotri Barrage would be desalinated for use as irrigation water in the corporate farming. All over the world, the water experts agree that a certain amount of sweet water should flow into the Sea to preserve the ecosystem, mangrove forests, wild life and Delta from extinction. Sindh has one of the biggest Deltas of the world with mangrove forests with rare breeds of marine animals. The water experts, in a conference held in 2015 in Karachi, were of the unanimous view that at least 17 million acre feet (MAF) should flow into the Sea downstream Kotri Barrage to save the adjoining districts of Thatta and Sujawal from the Sea intrusion. The water accords of 1991 identified this quantity of fresh water as 10 MAF. Presently, barring floods, not even half of this quantity of river water flows into the Sea with the consequence that the Sea has eaten away 2.3 million acres of coastal land in the above districts. The people from the Sujawal district were forced to migrate to other parts of Sindh. A UN report of 2016 had declared the encroachment of the Sea on cultivable land as the main cause of the abject poverty and unemployment in the once prosperous coastal regions of Sindh.
The Interim Chief Minister was a former Justice of the Supreme Court of Pakistan and well versed with his powers, and the constitutional commandments on the ownership of lands. The Constitution of Pakistan declares agriculture as a provincial subject. It preserves the right of the people of that federating unit to be the ultimate owners of the urban and rural lands falling within the geographical boundaries of their province. The provincial administration acts as the custodian of the provincial assets. The allotment of the lands to a foreigner or a federal institution is subject to the approval of the majority of the Legislative Assembly of the concerned province for purposes specified in the Constitution. One wonders what compelled the Chief Minister, being a former Justice to ignore the constitutional provisions in this sensitive matter.
The people of Sindh, given the level of poverty and the shrinking resources for livelihood particularly in rural districts cannot afford further deprivation and loss of their assets. The 160,000 acres of state land can provide sustenance to thousands of landless peasant families if they are allotted small pieces of 6-10 acres per family with resources to cultivate. The weak political administrations of Sindh have chronically shown least will to resist the appropriation of lands for the ever expanding housing schemes on the urban lands of Sindh by federal institutions. Given the past experience, it is apprehended that the present provincial government of Sindh would not withstand pressure for the appropriation of this huge tract of cultivable land as well. The forcible takeover of the lands of Sindh will further alienated the people of Sindh strengthening centrifugal forces to the peril of the federation.
The federal states all over the world try to protect the rights and assets of their small units from the trespass of any federal Authority. Pakistan should be no exception to this universal rule in the 21st century. The mere announcement of the leasing of lands has fuelled anger and anguish, and an acute sense of insecurity in the province compelling social and political groups to protest against the allocation of provincial lands for corporate Farming. This protest has now snowballed into a grass root protests by all segments of the society including political activists, Farmer Associations, social reformers, intellectuals, writers, artists etc. As this movement of resistance gathers momentum, the main political parties will also jump the bandwagon.
The people of Sindh, since millennia, have been dependent on the lands of the Indus Valley and waters of Indus River. The interior regions of the province were deliberately neglected in the industrial development. The province is being deprived of its genuine share from the natural resources of gas and oil, minerals and coal extracted from it deepening the dependence of its people on agriculture. This would further aggravated overall poverty and unemployment in the province fueling a profound sense of deprivation among the farming community of its population at the risk of our federation.
___________________
Based in Karachi, the author is a former member of the Foreign Service of Pakistan and has served as Ambassador for seven years.
Read: Indus River: Troubled Waters
