'Rural poverty challenge'

This is apropos an op-ed "Rural poverty challenge" carried out by the newspaper on Thursday. The writer has argued, for example: "The grant of land alone would not suffice to make all the possible. The first and foremost issue to be tackled by the government as essential follow-up is the availability of irrigation water which, due to poor maintenance of the canal irrigation system, has gone down considerably.
"Although, a vast majority of people engaged in agriculture are living below subsistence level, a number of big landlords have set up orchards, fruit gardens, vegetable and horticultural estates on their lands which yield higher incomes for them. There is also a class of landowners who have made substantial investments in real estate in cities. On the other hand, many traders and industrialists have purchased agricultural lands with the intent to whiten untaxed black incomes from businesses by showing it as agricultural income. Also many businessmen have entered into collusive arrangements with landowners; they obtain fictitious lease of lands from which they show enormous amounts of agricultural income which, in fact, is their business income and thus escape income tax." The writer seems to have lost sight of a critical fact: urbanisation or a population shift from rural to urban areas is not a Pakistan-specific issue; it is a global phenomenon. It is also not merely a modern phenomenon, but rapid and historic transformation of human roots. Not only does it bring about changes in land use, it also affects people's values and lifestyles. Karachi, Lahore and other big towns, therefore, are no exception in urbanisation pattern. Punjab after Partition was 80 percent rural; it is now hardly 50 percent rural.