‘Patwari’s mustn’t hire private staff, offices’

LHC orders BoR senior member, ACE to act against illegal practices in revenue dept

LAHORE:

Lahore High Court Bahawalpur Bench has declared that no privately engaged person shall be permitted to work in the revenue set-up or to have access to the record.

Justice Chaudhary Abdul Aziz, in his detailed judgment, ordered the senior member of the Board of Revenue (BoR) to make sure that offices set up by the patwaris in private buildings hired by them are immediately shifted to official premises. The Punjab anti-corruption director general was directed to initiate proceedings against patwaris involved in hiring private persons for performing their official duties.

Justice Abdul Aziz issued the order while granting bail to a patwari, Rafique Ahmed.

According to the first information report (FIR) registered against the official, complainant Azhar Ali approached Patwari Rafique Ahmed for the issuance of record of rights for a mutation but he demanded Rs50,000 and later agreed to do the work for Rs30,000. Azhar had lodged the complaint with the Anti-corruption Establishment (ACE) in Bahawalpur.

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"This court is not oblivious of the fact that the immediate removal of privately engaged persons from revenue offices will cause discomfort to the general public," the judge observed. "It will not be out of context to state here that hiring the services of private persons and establishing of Patwarkhanas in private buildings obtained through personal financial resources is a luxury, which by all means is not commensurate with the salary of a patwari and indicates the prevalent corruption in revenue offices.

"Since the services of a Munshi are hired by the patwari through personal financial arrangements, thus for all practical purposes, he is a private person and not a public servant.

Very often, such privately engaged persons are found involved in record tampering cases and even are burdened with the allegation of receiving illegal gratification but due to their status neither disciplinary proceedings can be initiated against them nor ACE can lay hands upon them," the court declared.

According to the verdict, is an astonishing idea to leave land record of citizens at the mercy of those who have no acceptable legal justification for their presence in the revenue offices.

A report submitted to the court revealed that 95 privately engaged persons were working in the revenue circles of Bahawalpur and in addition to 24 motified Patwarkhanas, 67 others were being run in private buildings acquired on rent by the patwaris through their own resources.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 9^th, 2021.