The disproportionate power of the landed elite

Dawn reported that landowners and people with agri-business interests form the biggest professional bloc in national and provincial legislatures, going by the declarations lawmakers filed with the Election Commission of Pakistan. That picture sits awkwardly beside official census figures showing shrinking farm sizes, with just 3pc of cultivators holding over 12.5 acres. The mismatch has raised questions about census sampling, how lawmakers describe their jobs and the influence of a small landed class.

Fafen's Parliament Monitor, which draws on Election Commission data, tallied 432 agriculturists among 1,058 members of the 2018 National Assembly and provincial assemblies. That figure was well ahead of 223 businessmen, 81 full-time politicians and 49 lawyers. Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, a former prime minister, attributed the gap to elite capture, alleging that farm income shelters earnings from tax. An IBA researcher, Dr Usama Ehsan Khan, said the census measures farm structure while Fafen records self-declared professions, not acreage.

Agricultural income, taxed by the provinces, has historically been lighter than comparable non-agricultural income, although recent reforms aim for parity. Rashid Chaudhry, an independent analyst, argued that some legislators declare agriculture for tax advantages even though falling profitability makes it unlikely to be their main income. Ziad Bashir of Ideas suggested satellite imagery and digitised land records could show who actually controls farm operations.