Islamabad Despite Imran Khan’s claims to digitize land records to bring transparency, his Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s (PTI) government prefers patwari system.
One of the primary aims of Imran Khan was to root out corruption by bringing transparency in real estate. He launched an accountability campaign for the elimination of land mafias and the patwari system, however, still using a 19th-century law for this purpose is an alibi, reported Dawn.
In September 2021, PM Khan attended the launch of a digitalised land record system and cadastral map for Islamabad. There, he said that a digitalised land record system would not only eliminate the land mafia but also control illegal and haphazard constructions in both urban and rural areas.
When contacted, both Prime Minister’s Focal Person on Digital Media Dr Arslan Khalid and head of the Digital Media Wing Imran Ghazali said that they were unaware of the matter since it was not within their purview. Rather than leading by example, the body responsible for providing housing to government officials is still acquiring land through patwaris, under the criteria laid down in the Land Acquisition Act of 1894.
According to a former official of the Federal Government Employees Housing Authority (FGEHA), the body is not interested in the computerisation of its processes or digitisation of records as the manual processes benefit certain vested interests, reported Dawn.
According to the authority’s official website, it has a mandate to initiate, launch, sponsor and implement housing schemes for government employees to ensure, as far as possible, that each of them has a house at the time of retirement or earlier. It provides housing for members of the bureaucracy, judiciary, lawyers and journalists, among others.
However, the land acquisition and allotment system in vogue at the authority has not been upgraded to date, which is evident from litigation related to the development of sectors F-14 and F-15, pending before the Islamabad High Court (IHC), reported Dawn.
On Aug 17, 2021, the FGEHA allotted 4,723 plots in sectors F-14 and F-15 to federal government officials ranging from grade 16 to 22, including judges of the superior and subordinate judiciary, as well as lawyers and other notable functionaries.
According to a serving FGEHA official, who spoke to Dawn on condition of anonymity, the vast majority of litigation the authority is embroiled in was down due to the lack of transparency in the handling of the core operations of the authority, of which land acquisition and allotment are a major part, reported Dawn. (MANISH )
