Seattle – Now that the floodwaters in Pakistan are receding, officials from Islamabad to Washington are faced with a great possibility.
This disaster that swept so much away may actually provide an opportunity to sweep away the biggest roadblock to improving Pakistan’s stability, furthering its economic growth, and lessening its threat to global security: the widespread lack of landownership by the rural poor.
The landless poor have no meaningful stake in rural society, and it is often the Taliban who step in to use their grievances as grounds for recruitment.
For the poor, owning at least some land of one’s own is a lifeline to survival – a basic source of nutrition, income, status, and security. Grossly mistreated by landowners, the landless poor in country after country have supported severe civil unrest and outright revolution.
Want Global Security From Terrorists? Give Land To Pakistan’s Poor
The Christian Science Monitor | Roy Prosterman | October 26