Property registration made easy for expats
The Punjab Land and Records Authority (PLRA) has set up ‘Land Record Centers’ at several diplomatic missions. The move is aimed at helping ex-pats in transferring their immovable properties without any hassle.
The facility is part of the Prime Minister’s grand e-Governance vision and is expected to help overseas Pakistanis in many countries — once it is fully rolled out.
The plan includes development and deployment of a new system which will make transfers and other property related matters more transparent.
According to a senior official, the government has restricted transfer of government lands across the province to prevent illegal occupation and fake transfers of land. Transfers will only take place once they are approved by the newly established committee. In the first phase of the project, overseas Pakistani in the United States, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom will be able to avail the service.
Director General for Land Records Authority in Punjab, Moazzam Sipra confirmed that equipment for the new setup at Pakistani missions has already been dispatched.
“The manpower for the new centers has been provided by the foreign affairs ministry, which will also provide special training to the staff. The staff at the centers has been given online access to the central database of LRA,” said Sipra.
Local transfers
Over the past few years, the land authority has eliminated counterfeit transfers of government land worth Rs60 billion.
In a bid to improve the process, the PLRA is all set to hire 4,000 officers across the province.
Each officer will be equipped with a laptop and will have access to the central database.
In order to ensure transparency, the authority has also initiated the process of digitizing the daily register of Patwaris.
In addition to ensuring transparency, the department will also prevent the use of dated stamp papers, a basic requirement for the transfer of property.
Record related to stamp papers will also be digitized and maintained by the department.
Previously, before a transfer or purchase, individuals were required to obtain the Fard, a mandatory document in such transactions. Now, the document will be available at the land record offices.
So far, 27 million pages of registries in Lahore have been scanned and uploaded on the PLRA website.
The DC rates fixed for land have also been added to the authority’s new software to curb corruption.
According to department sources, the number of pending registries and transfers has dropped from one million to 100,000 in the last few months.
The authority has also requested the provincial administration to allow collection of tax levied on the transfer and registration of land through the local government department.
The department has also confirmed that the duration the registry process has been reduced from 56 days to 11 days and the legal process of registration has been reduced from seven to five days.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 11th, 2020.