THE young leader of the party ruling Sindh for the last many years recently talked about internet disruptions and the importance of uninterrupted acce-ssibility for the development of the information technology (IT) industry in the country.

While it is a matter of importance, there is a need to prioritise the provision of clean drinking water to the people of Karachi and other parts of the province, in addition to security of life and pro-perty. Besides, there is an urgent need to make roads and schools functional. These are surely far more important tasks than internet accessibility.

Also, whatever happened to the land reforms that were initiated by the young leader’s grandfather? The feudal mindset has continued to create obstacles in the way of promoting education and elimi-nating poverty.

The government needs to realise that it happens to be the custodian, not the owner, of state lands and forests. Alleged irregularities in the water dist-ribution rights of Sindh, as pointed out by the party leader, need to be looked into. The proposed canals to take water from the Indus to farms and fields in southern Punjab for the so-called cooperative farming project will affect Sindh.

As such, the right to ownership of any state land is of those who have lived there for ages and tilled it.

The concept of cooperative farming is based on joint partnership, subsidised and regulated by the state. It does not mean a monopoly of state institutions. Absentee ownership of state lands adversely impacts agricultureal produce.

Malik Tariq Ali
Lahore

Published in Dawn, January 2nd, 2025