Pakistan still suffers from feudalism
But the landlords’ power is beginning to wane
![If you can’t beat them, pay them](https://www.economist.com/cdn-cgi/image/width=1424,quality=80,format=auto/sites/default/files/images/print-edition/20180106_ASP005_0.jpg)
PANICKED from its nest, a quail scuds low across a cotton-field. The hunters spin round and blast away. As the bird drops from the sky, a gang of poor boys in plastic flip-flops races through the mud, fighting to pick up the kill. This vignette of feudal life has hardly changed in a century, except for one thing, says Ehtehsham Laleka, a puckish 30-year-old, whose family owns 7,000 acres of land in this southern region of Punjab province. “In my grandfather’s day we would have had hundreds of beaters like them.”
This article appeared in the Asia section of the print edition under the headline “Quail, cotton and contumacy”
Asia January 6th 2018
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