------Original Message------ From: CIPE To: [email protected] Subject: Economic Reform Feature Service: "Taken Out of Context: Reflections on Private Property Reforms in Pakistan." Sent: Jul 31, 2009 1:39 PM
The following article has been released as part of the CIPE's Economic Reform Feature Service: Taken Out of Context: Reflections on Private Property Reform in Pakistan Ali Salman July 30, 2009 Article at a Glance: The most crucial shortcoming Pakistan faces today is the institutional deficit in property rights. While private property rights are a prerequisite for economic development, they are not enforceable in isolation – they require the recognition of local history and context. When context and history are ignored, property rights reforms are superficial, ineffective, and costly, both politically and financially. We invite you to visit CIPE's website and read this and other Economic Reform Feature Service articles. If you have comments or questions about the article, visit the CIPE Development Blog, http://www.cipe.org/blog, and discuss the topic with readers around the world. Read this and other Economic Reform Feature Service articles on-line at <http://www.cipe.org/publications/fs/index.php> View this article in PDF format: <http://www.cipe.org/publications/fs/pdf/073009.pdf> Property Rights and Socio-economic Development Property rights promote socio-economic development only when they are properly contextualized and take local factors into account. The government of Pakistan has transferred land rights to landless peasants several times during recent decades. The motive has been to give private property rights to landless farmers, who work as share-croppers, known as haris. The percentage of the land transferred remains small – total area transferred to landless peasants during the agriculture reforms of 1959, 1972, and 1977 comprises 1.4 million hectares (about 8 percent of the country’s cultivated area). This land was redistributed from large landowners, benefiting 288,000 farmers.4 While intentions were good, outcomes were rarely desirable, because transfers did not account for local realities. Take the case of the 1997 ownership transfer to landless peasants in Sindh. According to local accounts, mos Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] . -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
