On 25 July 2002 while inaugurating the First Economic Corporation Organistaion Ministerial Meeting on Agriculture in Islamabad, President Musharraf declared that Pakistan has announced its policy on corporate farming with specific incentives with an idea to attract large private corporate sector limited companies. Indeed, on 16 July 2002, a high-level government meeting took place to discuss the introduction of corporate farming throughout Pakistan. The meeting was attended by the Food Minister, the Labour Minister and the Chairman of the government’s Board of Investment (BOI) as well as senior federal and provincial officials. In an interview about the meeting, Pakistan’s “Business Recorder” reported that the Food Minister, Khair Muhammad Junejo, insisted that corporate farming “needs special focus to get roots in Pakistan.” Furthermore the report said that “the minister said corporate farming would bring a radical change in Pakistan and help fight out poverty from the farming community.” However, contrary to the government’s claims, throughout the world corporate farming has replaced domestic ownership by foreign, colonialist ownership, resulting in more expensive food and clothing and driving local farmers out of business. Now, the colonialists have turned their full attention to become the owners and controllers of Pakistan’s agriculture.
The colonialists have targeted ownership of Pakistan’s agriculture because Pakistan is already one of the foremost agricultural powers and is fully capable of becoming even more powerful. The World Bank’s Report No. 23916-PAK of April 3, 2002 states that “Even though (Pakistan’s) agricultural growth has exceeded the average for low and middle -income countries in the 1990s, there is considerable unexploited potential.” Apart from food, Pakistan’s cotton production is so strong that America has refused Pakistani textile exporters fair access to its own markets because it fears the loss of demand for America’s own cotton. In the words of First Vice President of the American Cotton Shippers Association (ACSA), Mr. Dunavant, “Pakistan already is the number one producer of cheap textiles. Increasing the amount of textiles they can export into the country will limit how much US cotton domestic mills will buy.” Furthermore, the colonialists realise that Pakistan has the ability to help the Islamic Ummah become self-subsistent in terms of food and clothing. Not only can Pakistan feed people well beyond its borders, it has easy access to the Islamic Lands of the Middle East, Iran, Afghanistan and the Central Asian Republics. Colonialist institutions such as the World Trade Organisation, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank have therefore insisted on corporate farming so that Pakistan exposes its agriculture to ownership by foreign companies. The colonialists are using corporate farming to exploit the immense agricultural wealth that Allah (swt) has bestowed upon Pakistan and to prevent Muslims from challenging the colonialist economic hegemony.
As for Musharraf’s government, it works to make foreign, colonialist ownership of Pakistani soil easy, with not even true investment in return. The government’s Board of Investment (BOI) brochure for Corporate Agricultural Farming outlines the government’s commitment to establish the foreign domination of Pakistan’s agriculture. The wealthy foreign Trans-National agribusiness Corporations (TNCs) can now buy up as much of Pakistan as they want because the BOI promises there will be “no ceiling on land holding” and “state land can be purchased, or leased for 50 years, and extendable for another 49 years.” Also, the foreign landowners can easily increase their advantage over domestic producers by importing agricultural tools cheaply and easily. The government has confirmed that there will be “0% customs duty on import of agricultural machinery, equipment and implements.” And even though Pakistan is giving up its agricultural sovereignty, there will be no true investment in Pakistan. Pakistan will not benefit from the advanced farming methods because the colonialists jealously guard such technology using means such as patent laws. Nor will Pakistan benefit from the immense profits made by the foreign exploitation of its soil because the colonialist companies will take the profits out of Pakistan. The government has guaranteed that “remittance of capital, profits, dividends (is) allowed.” The government is fully collaborating in the colonialist plan to maximise exploitation of Pakistan’s agriculture at minimum cost to the foreign companies.
Not only will there be no real investment in Pakistan, corporate farming will completely cripple Pakistan’s ability to feed and clothe itself. Small local farmers will not be able to compete with the government-assisted foreign companies. As has happened already all over the world, corporate farming will pressurise the small farmers to sell what land they have, further increasing the grip of foreign occupation of a country’s soil. Furthermore, foreign multinational companies are only interested in maximising their profits in global markets and so ignore a country’s own domestic needs. So, cultivation of tobacco and coffee has preference over wheat and rice, even though such cash crops will not deal with hunger or nakedness. In the long term, the loss of diversity in crops will expose Pakistan to famine, as already experienced by Sudan. And just as the introduction of private electricity power producers led to price rises and a crippling of Pakistan’s domestic industry, corporate farming will wreck Pakistan’s domestic agriculture and make food and clothing even more expensive. Instead of fighting poverty, corporate farming will destroy Pakistan’s food security and its potential to liberate Muslims from economic hegemony.
Despite the great danger to Pakistan, the government continues to defend corporate farming by actually claiming it will improve Pakistan’s economy. And it is not as if the government is unaware of the damage to agriculture by corporate farming. As well as many independent agricultural experts, the government’s own experts have warned Musharraf for some time about corporate farming but Musharraf has turned a blind eye. In May 2001, the News reported that the Deputy Chairman Planning, Dr Shahid Amjad Chaudhry, “pointed out to the President General Musharraf that this new policy was … the negation of government’s existing policy of alleviation of poverty from the rural areas.” The News also described that Dr. Chaudhury was “fully supported by Chief Executive Advisor on Agriculture M Shafi Niaz who also expressed similar views.” By pursuing corporate farming regardless of expert advice, Musharraf has again put the colonialist agenda first and Pakistan and the Muslims last by working with the colonialists to break Pakistan’s economic backbone, agriculture.
O Muslims of Pakistan!
Your corrupt ruler is imposing the colonialist agenda of destroying every field by which the Muslims can become strong and independent. Your own ruler undertakes all efforts to hide the colonialist mischief of invading your soil so as to dominate and control your every affair. You cannot wait silently whilst the colonialists work tirelessly to subjugate you completely. You must work to uproot the colonialist agenda by re-establishing Islam’s ruling system, the Khilafah. It is the Khilafah alone that will protect the assets of the Ummah from foreign exploitation. It is the Khilafah alone that will bring true investment in agriculture, without giving up economic sovereignty. Allah (swt) revealed,
“But seek the abode of the Hereafter in that which Allah has given you, and do not neglect your portion of worldly life, and be kind even as Allah has been kind to you, and seek not corruption in the earth. Verily, Allah likes not the Mufsidoon (those who are mischief makers, corrupted.” [Al-Qassas 77]
Hizb ut-Tahrir, Wilayah Pakistan
2 August 2002