Calling our homeland plotistan —the land of the plots —sounds strange. One wishes the description was never crafted. But what other scenario was likely? For most Pakistanis buying a ‘file’ is an aspiration, owning a plot is an achievement and possessing many plots is a significant achievement. Owning a real estate company is a mark of success that brings one praise and envy. Why not? The Khan regime has bestowed the status of an asset class on real estate. While real estate ownership became a sign of respectability, security, social standing and investment over the last decade, turning land into an asset class has been the unique contribution of the current government.

As a result of Khan’s vision, real estate investors are raiding small farmers, determined to bring all land lying between various cities under their private control. Ironically, the government, too, is after the land. Ignoring all protests, the Punjab government is acquiring land from the poor living between River Ravi and Kala Shah Kaku to build a new city for the investors and the rich. The citizens whose voices are trivialised by the ivory towers of policy craft metaphors such as plotistan and make those their weapon of resistance.

Plotistan points to a culture actively shaped by the Khan regime. It is a culture of investing in land to turn it into an asset class. This culture works by making real estate investment a value to be worshipped. It is becoming irresistible for those with money. It does not allow many people think of investing in productive capital. Even the well-meaning — professors, NGO heads, traders and seekers of the other world — keep saving money to multiply plots in their ownership. This culture may be called a specter of the real estate haunting our homeland. If this specter is not exorcised soon it might jeopardise our existence as most of us will lack access to land.

An unpacking of this specter may be the first step to its exorcism. One of the greatest economists, the American Henry George, unpacked it effectively in his 1879 book Progress and Poverty by showing that technological advancements reduce production cost and increase the cost of land. He predicted that the high land prices might cause the fall of an economy. Imagining it is scary, but as he showed, the rising prices of land stop entrepreneurs from buying land. This causes a fall in production. In our homeland, buying land is unimaginable. Affording the land rents is difficult for many who have innovative ideas but not the money.

As the real estate specter is fast taking over Pakistan, Henry George can help us understand how the real estate specter is undermining innovation and production in our economy. Many scholars are currently using Henry George to analyse the economic disruptions brought about by real estate investments across the globe. It is essential to highlight that Henry was a celebrated economist in his lifetime. His book was translated into 25 languages and sold more copies than Das Kapital.

Plotistan points to a culture being actively shaped by the Khan regime. It is a culture of investing in the land to turn it into an asset class. This culture works by making real estate investment a value to be worshipped.

If public policy is the study of who benefits from state actions, as Harold Lasswell put it, the Khan regime is aiding those who are using money to undermine the Pakistani economy by seducing people to invest in real estate by making it an asset class. A majority of the people are being pushed into marginality by making them unable to buy land for housing or commercial purposes. A recent State Bank of Pakistan report tells us that the house price to income ratio in Pakistan has gone as high as 20:1, whereas globally, it is 5:1. This means that it may take an accumulation of someone’s 20 years income to buy a decent home. But since the household incomes are becoming insufficient even for everyday needs, it usually takes 30-40 years to save to become a homeowner in a city. If owning a home may take this long, how long may it take for a middle-class entrepreneur to buy a piece of commercial property? Or to have money to rent a commercial property?

In 2006, the Ministry of Commerce, commissioned a series of studies on domestic commerce. It identified the high rents and costs of commercial properties as a significant barrier to the growth of entrepreneurship in Pakistan. Since then land prices and rents have almost doubled in Pakistan.

As a result, Pakistan is fast becoming a place where money, and not new ideas, have become a fundamental condition for starting a business. The entrepreneurs with innovative ideas are discouraged from making the economy come alive as they are unable to pay rents or buy commercial properties. Overbidding in real estate is killing the potential of innovative ideas to revive the economy, which according to economist Kaiser Bengali, has become mostly consumerist and is surviving on a ventilator. The crisis of the economy, he says, is so deep that there is an urgent need to direct investment to productive activities.

Protecting the economy means protecting a majority of Pakistanis. It requires exorcism of the real estate’s specter at the earliest. Our ivory tower policymakers and their aides among knowledge brokers need to be socialised into Henry George’s theory that keep rents and land prices within reach of productive economic activity is necessary. Only a revival and encouragement of productive economic activity can help Pakistan start providing jobs and entrepreneurship to the Pakistanis.

The writer is a scholactivist with Forman Christian College University and Punjab Urban Resource Centre in Lahore