Land Tenure and Property Rights in Pakistan

Rural discontent over chronic poverty, corruption, and the failure of the government to foster development is widespread in Pakistan. Land tenure and property rights are one aspect of these problems, undermining economic growth and fuelling conflict. Post-independence Pakistan has retained a feudal system of land tenure in which an elite class of landowners owns vast holdings worked by tenant farmers and laborers who live in persistent poverty.

The Taliban is building popular support based in part upon anger over the unequal distribution of land and unfair owner-tenant contracts. The insurgents are thus exploiting deep resentment among landless tenants toward “wealthy landlords,” effectively “engineering a class revolt” with significant implications for the rest of Pakistan (Perlez and Shah 2009).

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