according to 2000 agricultural census 63.3% of rural households were landless. Of the remaining 37% of rural households, 61% of these owned fewer than 5 acres, totaling 15% of total land. Two percent of households owned 50 acres or more, accounting for 30 percent of total land area.) Concentration of ownership is also thought to be less productive than owner farmed land. According to the World Bank, "most empirical evidence indicates that land productivity on large farms in Pakistan is lower than that of small farms, holding other factors constant." Small farmers have "higher net returns per hectare" than large farms, according to farm household income data. Sharecropper productivity is also lower (about 20%) than landowner productivity, holding other factors constant, because there is less incentive for sharecroppers’ own-labour inputs. The major effort to redistribute land to peasants and landless—Laws in 1972 and 1977 by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto—were struck down as un-Islamic by Pakistan courts in a number of decisions from 1979 to 1989. The first attempts at land reform in Pakistan occurred under Ayub Khan's government, the West Pakistan Land Reforms Regulation 1959 (Regulation 64 of 1959). The law put a ceiling on individual holdings: no one individual could own more than 500 acres of irrigated and 1,000 acres of unirrigated land or a maximum of 36,000 Produce Index Units (PIU), whichever was greater. On result of this attempt at redistribution was that land was divided up among members of the landowning family to keep the land owned by individuals below the "ceiling". The People's Party government (1971-1977) intended to transform Pakistan with land reform among other policies. Its rationale was that land redistribution to the landless in the rural areas would alleviate poverty in the state and diminish inequality; would weaken the power and dominance of the zamindars, Pakistan's 'feudal class'; and would be crafted so as to make Pakistan's agricultural production more efficient; transforming `traditional, inefficient absentee landlordism` into `modern, efficient agricultural entrepreneurship.` It issued two major land reform laws, Land Reform Regulation 1972 (Martial Law Regulation - MLR 115) promulgated by Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, was designed to place ceilings on the agricultural holding of Pakistan's large landlords. Land in excess of a ceiling of 150 acres was to be seized by the state without compensation and distributed to the landless. The ceiling was raised to 300 acres if the land was unirrigated; exceptions were