Economic policies of Bhutto

Mr. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, the Chairman of the Pakistan Peoples Party and the Prime Minister of Pakistan, popularly known as QUAID-I-AWAM, for the first time in the history of Pakistan launched a vigorous campaign of sweeping and constructive reforms for the betterment of the Pakistan.

Land reforms
On March 1, 1972, Bhutto announced, what he called, revolutionary land reform. Within three months of taking the rein of the Government, Prime Minister Bhutto announced wide-ranging land reforms to allow the peasantry to start a new life. Agriculture development occupies a key position in the economy of Pakistan. The welfare of about 80% of the people living in the rural areas and the overall development of the economy itself depends on the improvement in agriculture: the small land holders were still suffering from the heavy burden of the land revenue and other taxes, so it was imperative to lighten their burden. The basic aim of the agrarian reforms is to increase yield per acre, providing better return to farmers to which the Peoples Government is committed and to achieve self-sufficiency in food production.

Industrial reforms
During the last general elections Pakistan People's Party coined two slogans; Firstly, the party promised Roti, Kapra or Makan for everyone. Second slogan enunciates the three fundamental principles of the Party, namely, Islam is our DEEN (Religion), Democracy is our polity and Socialism is our economy. Both these slogans are not mere election slogans. They reflect an outlook a concrete philosophy of life. On December 22, 1971, he impounded the passports of members of 22capitalist families of Pakistan who virtually controlled the national economy. These families were known to have owned more than 60 per cent of Pakistans industrial assets, and, controlled nearly 80 per cent of insurance business of Pakistan before the emergence of Bangladesh.

Labour reforms

When Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto took over the reins of the government, the economic system of the nineteenth century prevailed in Pakistan. The military dictators encouraged the employers to completely ignore the social conditions and the interests of the workers. Free enterprise and profit motive were the only two words written in capital letters in the dictionary of the employers. Labour welfare is corner-stone of the labour policy of the people's Government under the dynamic leadership of Quaid-e-Awam, Mr.Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. The Awami Government observed the Labour week. It was for the first time that such a week was celebrated in Pakistan. It highlighted the socioeconomic role of the labour. With the implementation of the Labour Laws the labourers enjoy increased participation in the management, guaranteed power of collective bargaining, increased wages and fringe benefits, promotion of trade unionism, introduction of old-age pension scheme, improvement in the compensation act and share in profits.

The Fiscal Measures and Bank Nationalization

On May 11, 1972, Bhutto announced devaluation of Pakistani currency, to equate eleven Pakistani rupees to one American dollar. The parity value before devaluation was Rs. 4.75 (Pakistan) to the US dollar. Pakistans foreign debts, on March 31, 1967, amounted to $ 1,753 million, which tended to multiply over the years and on March 31, 1971, stood at 8 3,381 million. On June 3, 1972, the Bhutto government demonetized old fiverupee and ten rupee notes in order to eradicate hoarding and smuggling. For weeding out large-scale malpractices in the banking system, the government announced on May 19, 1972, a series of banking reforms.

Comments
The economic policies that are carried out by Bhutto during his reign were the flirtation with socialism because due to these policies the economy of the nation got depress. Bhutto co-opted with religious elite yet he was not able to bring a great change because the economy slow down due to his nationalization policies. He just used the name of socialism but actually fooled the nation. He did not fulfill his earlier promises of distributed of lands.