He said that the visuals taken from the digital survey clearly reveal the overall development of Karachi, demarcation of different areas and encroachments on land.
Just in time for the Supreme Court’s hearing in Karachi, set to begin on Thursday, the Sindh government’s revenue department has finished the digital survey of Karachi’s unregistered land in compliance with the apex court’s orders.
Karachi will now be the first division in Pakistan to have a modern imagery satellite survey of its land which has been completed through Geographical Information System (GIS).
“After the field survey, we have now started mapping and drawing of the land record which will be finalised by October,” said Syed Zulfiqar Shah, in-charge of the survey wing.
Shah told The Express Tribune that it was not possible for the provincial government to meet the Supreme Court’s deadline regarding the survey which is why it hired three different private firms and completed this task in five months. “Revenue department has also established the GIS unit, which will now maintain and update the record. We are now developing the database by incorporating all relevant land record of Karachi,” he said.
He said that the visuals taken from the digital survey clearly reveal the overall development of Karachi, demarcation of different areas and encroachments on land.
“We have registered 681,000 acres, comparing the same with our old record. More than 10,000 acres have been encroached upon by the Karachi Port Trust, Defence Housing Authority, Railways, Port Qasim and other government and private institutions,” Shah told The Express Tribune, adding that KPT has encroached upon 1,300 acres while 118 acres worth billions of rupees adjacent to Marina club have been encroached by DHA. “We now have a complete record of Karachi’s land and if needed, can pinpoint the encroachers to the court.”
Detailed survey
Although Shah avoided providing information about the budget and expenses of the project, sources in the revenue department said that Rs150 million was initially estimated for the project in Karachi for 93 dehs.
Referring to an earlier meeting held at the Chief Minister House, a senior revenue official said, “Initially, an idea was brought up [at the CM House] to conduct land survey of the entire province. But when officials estimated the cost in billions of rupees, the chief minister directed them to confine the survey to Karachi only.”
Shah, however, said that the government was considering replicating this system in other parts of the province as well. When asked about the revenue record which was burnt down following the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, he said, “Court had ordered us not only to recompile the record, but reconfirm it as many people had tampered with the land record by fake registrations of their properties. We have compiled more than 80 per cent land record and verification of the same is about to complete,” he said, adding that Thatta, Dadu, Hyderabad, Larkana, Benazirabad and Sukkur were the other districts where rioters had set the record on fire and destroyed the revenue offices.
Malik Asrar Hussain, a senior member of the Board of Revenue, said that a manual survey had been conducted by revenue officials earlier. “In comparison, the satellite survey physically shows the status of the land in Karachi and no one will be able to doubt its authenticity,” he said, adding that following the survey, notices would be sent to those institutions that have encroached on government’s land. “This was the first general survey of Karachi’s land after 1912. It would have taken years if we had conducted it manually which is why we have hired the services of a private firm to digitalise the system.”
Published in The Express Tribune, September 18th, 2013.
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