SC rejects report on Rs5 billion unregistered state land project

Supreme Court Karachi bench orders Board of Revenue get a competent officer for the task

KARACHI:

The Supreme Court (SC) rejected on Monday the computerised record of unregistered state land in Karachi prepared by the Sindh Board of Revenue (BoR) at a cost of around Rs5 billion.

A five-member larger bench, headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Anwar Zaheer Jamali, directed the Sindh chief secretary to nominate a competent officer to perform the task of registering all unregistered government lands in the city.



The bench, which also included justices Amir Hani Muslim, Sheikh Azmat Saeed, Faisal Arab and Khilji Arif Hussain, was hearing the case of registration of lands during the week-long Karachi law and order suo motu implementation proceedings which resumed at the SC's Karachi registry on Monday.

The apex court inquired from BoR officials regarding progress on surveying and registering unregistered state lands in Karachi, as ordered by the apex court in October 2011. In June 2014, the court had again granted six months to the authorities to complete the task.

The head of BoR's land administration and revenue management information system, Syed Zulfiqar Shah, told the court that the record of 625,000 acres of unregistered (na-class) state land had been computerised in all districts of Karachi under the Rs4.9 billion project initiated in light of the apex court's directives.

The judges rejected, however, the report after finding flaws in the process of computerisation which was full of tampering as it did not match the microfilms dating back to 1985. Shah explained that the record was computerised after due verification by each district's deputy commissioner.

Justice Muslim, who has an expertise in the subject, told Shah the available record had already been tampered with many times. "The land record since 1985 has largely been tampered with multiple entries in respect of a single piece of land. If you see a single page, it is dotted with fake entries entirely," he told the officer.

The apex court termed the entire exercise, which BoR out-sourced under the Rs4.9 billion land record restructuring project, a futile activity, as the records did not match the original microfilms prior to the tampering of records.

The chief justice observed that the court had issued directives for registering state lands, which was, otherwise, the Sindh government's duty [to maintain authentic land records].

New appointment

The bench also criticised chief secretary Muhammad Siddique Memon for not filling the important seat of BoR's senior member, observing that the government always appoints 'incompetent and medically unfit' officers on the post, who go on leave when the court takes up the matter.

"If one officer is sent to jail for six months, everyone will mend [their] ways," warned a visibly irritated Justice Muslim, as he questioned officers why the available record was not verified from the central control room.



The bench asked the chief secretary if there was a competent officer, whom the government could appoint as the BoR's senior member with an undertaking that he would not be transferred unnecessarily. The chief secretary then named Rizwan Memon for the post.

The bench directed him to officially authorise the said officer to perform the task and present a formal notification in this regard in the court by Tuesday (today).

Published in The Express Tribune, March 8^th, 2016.