Post-assassination riots: 3 years on, Sindh’s affairs in disarray after burning of revenue records

Property cases pile up, officials accused of demanding bribes.

KARACHI: Prisons, libraries, post offices and revenue records — the vandalism and mayhem that followed Benazir Bhutto’s assassination did not discriminate. And three years on, the sale and purchase of property across Sindh has come to a grinding halt because the process of restoring the records is proving a nightmare.

Hassan Soho of Thatta is among the thousands of people whose property records were burnt when the revenue office was set on fire in 2007. Soho has been visiting the revenue office to get duplicates, a process called “rewrite of the property”, but nothing has been done so far.

“I have met all requirements. I even presented three neighbours as witnesses. Why should I give them money? It is my right to get the duplicate documents because I want to sell my property,” he said. The officials say they cannot initiate the process unless orders are given.

Even after three years, the government has not started restoring the records, which has brought the sale and purchase of property to a near standstill.

Noor Memon of Kamber Ali Khan can still remember the day the office was destroyed. “A mob armed with sticks stormed into the Mukhtiarkar office, threw the records out on the main road and set them on fire. I was calling the police and the DPO but nobody got here for three days,” he recalled. The mob broke into the prison and also damaged the post office and a library.

After the attacks, the revenue department surveyed their area and asked people to re-register their properties. But, according to officials, hardly 10 per cent of the people have had their records re-done.

“Records of 1,500 dehs in more than 30 talukas were burnt,” said an official. Affected talukas included Shahdadkot, Warrah, Nawabshah, Thatta, Mirpur Sakro, Miro Khan, Naushero Feroz, Matiari, Khairpur Nathan Shah, Jamshoro, Hyderabad, Tando Muhammad Khan, Matli, Badin, Jacobabad, Sukkur and Shikarpur. “No district was spared the arson. Government offices were especially targeted” he said.

“The revenue minister had asked them [department] to get the work done by mid-January but it takes at least three to four years to complete.”

The missing documents have led to disputes among many people who have filed petitions against each other.

Revenue Minister Jam Mehtab Dahar said the records are safe till 1985 as they were put on microfilm. As for complaints of bribes and illegal conduct, anyone can inform the minister.

But an official of the revenue department requesting anonymity said, “From the DCO to the tapedars, nobody is interested in getting done a job that does not involve money.”

According to property dealer Usman Bashir, officials are even misplacing documents on purpose for bribes.

It is a simple procedure — a person just has to produce the copy of his property documents at the office of the revenue department, along with an application, he explained. The officials are supposed to re-register his property by the next day. If someone does not have the copies, the officials have to verify his claims from his neighbours. “Can you imagine they charge Rs20,000 to Rs30,000 for issuing forms 7 and 2 for the registration of property?” he asked.

This is not just a problem for people but also for the government. “The work related to the registration and transfer of property has come to a stop,” he pointed out. The government is losing a lot of revenue because of this.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 27^th, 2010.