Suspended patwari's active account raises security concerns

Revenue authorities urged to investigate alleged lapse, strengthen digital access

MAILSI:

Questions have been raised over the security of the Punjab Revenue Department's digital land-record system after the online access of a suspended patwari to official records allegedly remained active for four months.

Patwari Faisal Abbas was suspended in April this year following public complaints and allegations of irregularities and misconduct.

He had been responsible for Patwar Circles Kot Malik and Chak 211-WB in Mailsi.

After his suspension, charge of both circles was re-portedly handed over to Patwari Mian Waheed Athar.

Sources said the suspended official's user account was allegedly not deactivated after the change of charge, potentially allowing him continued online access to records of the villages under his former jurisdiction.

The situation has raised concerns over whether Fai-sal Abbas accessed the official records after his suspension and, if so, whether any unauthorised changes or amendments were made.

Such activity could be established through an audit of the system's access logs and other technical rec-ords.

Sources alleged that the suspended patwari had pre-viously made several changes to official records, although these allegations could not be independent-ly verified.

They also questioned whether negligence or facilita-tion by officials responsible for managing the digi-tal system at the Deputy Commissioner's Office in Vehari contributed to the alleged failure to deacti-vate the account.

System Network Administrator (SNA) Muneeb Ahmed of the Vehari IT Section said the department could take action once the suspension order issued by Mailsi Assistant Commissioner and the appointment orders of the new patwari were formally received.