Commissioner, police chief reprimanded for ‘protecting’ suspect

Investigation team formed to probe into the matter, IHC told

ISLAMABAD: The chief commissioner of the federal capital and its top cop have both assured the court that they will probe the matter of forged land registries in the city and that that the suspects will be identified soon and punished.

This was assured as a two-member bench of the Islamabad High Court (IHC), comprising Chief Justice Athar Minallah and Justice Mian Gul Aurangzeb, heard the case of a bail application on Wednesday.

During the hearing, Islamabad’s Chief Commissioner Amir Ali Ahmed and Inspector General of Police (IGP) Amir Zulfiqar Khan appeared before the bench.



The petitioner’s counsels, Raja Rizwan Abbasi and Sohail Warraich, presented their arguments.

Justice Aurganzeb, though, remarked that the attitude of the investigator in a routine bail application was irresponsible, which is why senior officers have been summoned in person.

“An attempt was made to protect the sub-registrar involved in making fake registries,” Justice Aurangzeb continued.

He added that the investigation had failed to bring the crime to light, which suggests a failure of the system.

IGP Amir told the court that they have now devised an investigation team which will soon resolve the issue.

IHC Chief Justice Minallah maintained that they often encounter such issues in cases.

The court has declared that it will issue its verdict on the bail application next week.

The case pertains to a capital resident forging registry documents of a property and then selling the property. The police, though, allegedly tried to protect the suspect under investigation but once the matter came to light, the court summoned the top officials.

Later in the day, the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) chief commissioner has issued a public notice which stated that the documentary performa has been simplified so as to prevent the propagation of fraudulent land registries.

The new forms contain only three to four fields including name, the address of the land, the size of the land which is being registered, its value and the witnesses.



Moreover, the chief commissioner has declared that it will now be mandatory that the land transfer process is completed within a week’s time.

The move has been taken due to complications in the land transfer process and forms, especially for land in the rural areas of the capital. However, this has now been simplified into a single-page document.

Past performas were in multiple languages and used to be quite technical. 

Published in The Express Tribune, December 6^th, 2018.