Feudalism in Pakistan

Feudalism in contemporary Pakistan usually refers to the power and influence of large landowning families, particularly through very large estates and in more remote areas. The adjective "feudal" in the context of Pakistan has been used to mean "a relatively small group of politically active and powerful landowners." "Feudal attitude" refers to "a combination of arrogance and entitlement." According to the Pakistan Institute of Labor Education and Research (PILER), five percent of agricultural households in Pakistan own nearly two-thirds of Pakistan's farmland.

Large joint families in Pakistan may possess hundreds or even thousands of acres of land, while making little or no direct contribution to agricultural production, which is handled by "peasants or tenants who live at subsistence level." Landlord power may be based on control over local people through debt bondage passed down generation after generation, and power over the distribution of water, fertilisers, tractor permits and agricultural credit, which in turn gives them influence over the revenue, police and judicial administration of local government. In recent times, particularly "harsh feudalism" has existed in rural Sindh, Balochistan, and some parts of Southern Punjab. Pakistan's major political parties have been called "feudal-oriented", and as of 2007, more than two-thirds of the National Assembly (Lower House) and most of the key executive posts in the provinces were held by feudals, according to scholar Sharif Shuja.

Explanations for the power of "feudal" landowning families that has waned in other post-colonial societies such as India include lack of land reform in Pakistan.

Criticism and analysis
Critics of feudalism have complained of a culture of feudal impunity, where local police will refuse to pursue charges against an influential landowning family even when murder or mayhem have been committed; of abuse of power by some landlords who may place enemies in "private prisons" and "enslave" local people through debt bondage; the harming of progress and prosperity by feudals who discourage the education of their "subjects" for fear it will weaken feudal power; the giving of space to extremists who peasants turn to in the search for deliverance from the cruelty of feudal lords; and an agriculture sector made stagnant by absentee landlordism.

Others have complained that Pakistan has developed a "fixation" on feudalism (Michael Kugelman); that it has become a scapegoat for Pakistan's problems, frequently denounced but not seriously studied (Eqbal Ahmed); a "favorite boogie of the urban educated elites"; or that it does not exist because South Asia never developed large concentrations of land ownership or a feudal class, and what is called feudal in Pakistan is merely a "rural gentry", who are "junior partners" to those who actually hold power (Haider Nizamani). “Feudalism serves as the whipping boy of Pakistan’s intelligentsia. Yet, to my knowledge few serious studies have been published on the nature and extent of feudal power in Pakistan, and none to my knowledge on the hegemony which feudal culture enjoys in this country.” Nicolas Martin's work is in this respect an exception, although he argues that it is politically influential landlords, and not all landlords, who wield the despotic and arbitrary powers that are often attributed to the landed classes as a whole.

Despite its political influence, feudalism has become so unpopular in public expression and the media that "feudal lords" are denounced even by some from "feudal" families (such as Shehbaz Sharif).

In media portrayals, the very popular 1975 Pakistan Television (PTV) series Waris centered around a feudal lord (Chaudhry Hashmat) who rules his fiefdom, "with an iron grip".

In Mughal Empire
"It was Akbar not the British colonizers who left us this parasitical curse". When the British first set foot on the Undivided India, the Mughals were in rule over most part of the region. As a part of their revenue administration was the mansabdari system through which they regulated control over the land revenue of the country. This system, introduced by Mughal Emperor Akbar, remained in place from the late 16th Century (dates vary between 1575 and 1595) till the fall of the Mughal Empire.A Brief History of British Land Acquisition in India

This acquisition of lands – and its pattern – determined the method of revenue collection that the colonial power opted for, beginning with the diwani, the first time the British gained the right to collect revenue from local land. In due time, with the introduction of the British Raj, they would stamp their legal authority over the Undivided India by introducing a number of reforms that would systematically create a new breed of intermediaries in the revenue system.

Under colonial rule
Difference from Modern Feudalism

Often criticized for being the root of our modern feudal system, the mansabdari system was in fact different in many essential ways. First and foremost, the system granted ownership on a non-hereditary transferable basis. The officials, mansabdars, who were granted the job of overseeing of the land, never owned their mansabs but were only granted a share of its earnings as a reward for their work. Thus, since they never owned the land, they did not have the right to pass it on to their offspring, either. This non-ownership of land is the essential difference between modern feudalism and the Mughal mansabdari system.

Mansabdars turn into Petty Chiefs

However, after the fall of the Mughal Empire, these mansabdars, turned into de facto hereditary landlords and petty chiefs of their mansabs. With the Mughal ruler gone, there was no one to stop them from doing so. But, sadly for them, soon enough, a new force was to gain control of their land – the British.

In independent Pakistan
Almost half of Pakistan's GDP and the bulk of its export earnings are derived from the agricultural sector, which is controlled by a few thousand feudal families. Some of the most powerful feudal dynasties include the Jatoi, Zardari, Mazari, Mehr, Malik Awan, Chaudhary, Bhutto, Mirani, Khan, Zehri, Khar and Qureshi families. These families each own thousands of acres of prime agricultural land with thousands of villagers living on and tending to the family land. The Jatoi family owns 45,000 acres of land and the Khan family owns 30,000 acres. The Khar and Mirani families are smaller each owning 6,000 acres of agricultural land. With this concentration of economic power, they also have considerable political power.

The leadership of the Pakistan Muslim League, the political party that established Pakistan in 1947, was dominated primarily by feudal landowners such as the Taluqdars, Zamindars, Chaudharys, Rajas, Rais, Mahers, Maliks, Khans, Jagirdars, Nawab and Sardars. The sole exception were the Jinnahs.

During the '50s and the '60s, the feudal families retained control over national affairs through the bureaucracy and military. In 1971, they assumed direct power as Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was from a very large landowning family and retained it until the military regained power. Nawab Malik Amir Mohammad Khan, an Awan, was Nawab of Kalabagh and remained governor of West Pakistan from 1960-1966.

The former Prime Minister of Pakistan, Yousuf Raza Gilani, is a major landowner from South Punjab (Multan) and from a long-standing political family. The President former Asif Ali Zardari is a large landowner from Sindh as well as the widower of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, daughter of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. Hamid Nasir Chattha's (former Speaker of the National Assembly of Pakistan) family has held power for decades in Gujranwala-hafizabad districts as the Chief of the Chattha Feudals. Shah Mehmood Qureshi hails from a prominent feudal Sufi family in Multan and is also followed as a religious saint.

Thus, large landowners have dominated Pakistan's politics since the country's inception.