Going digital: Sindh passes bills to computerise land, revenue records

Service centres will also be set up to maintain records, transfer and register deeds.

KARACHI:

Following Supreme Courts orders, the Sindh Assembly unanimously passed two separate bills on Friday to computerise the land and revenue records of the province.

Moving the Sindh Revenue (Amendment) Bill, parliamentary affairs minister Dr Sikandar Mandhro said the Sindh government has already accelerated the process and 60 per cent of the land records of the province have been computerised. The session on Friday was chaired by speaker Agha Siraj Durrani.

Soon after the bill turns into law, service centres will be established to maintain the computerised records of particular districts or taluka. Residents can approach these centres for mutation, transfer, execution and registration of deeds, he explained. “Earlier, people used to get their properties verified through a manual procedure but now they will be able to avail all the information through the computerised system within a few minutes,” Dr Mandhro said proudly.



During the remarkably productive day, the Sindh legislators also passed the Registration (Sindh Amendment) Bill to computerise the process of registering deeds and stamps of all revenue records. After this law, people who are defaulters of utility companies will have to clear their dues before they can register their properties.

Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) leader Syed Sardar Ahmed suggested an amendment — in the absence of a registrar or sub-registrar, the registration process will be carried out by their nominee, failing which, the cases will be referred to the court.

Opposition plea against nuclear plants

The members of ruling Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) dismissed the opposition’s plea to discuss the two nuclear power plants — K-II and K-III — being established near Karachi.

Soon after the session started, MQM members, Aamir Moin Pirzada and Khalid Ahmed, moved a joint adjournment motion to discuss the two power plants. “We are not against power generation to meet the energy needs but it cannot be done at the cost of human lives,” explained Ahmed. “This kind of a reactor must be set up at least 170 kilometres away from the city, otherwise it will prove fatal.”

However, PPP’s Dr Mandhro opposed this motion saying that the opposition members have failed to attach the documents that prove these power plants are hazardous. “An adjournment motion can only be moved on recent occurrences and it has not been mentioned in the plea whether or not this is a recent event.” Despite requests to take up the matter, the speaker declared the motion was “out of order”.

War of words

A war of words between the PPP and the MQM members continued in Friday’s session as well. MQM’s deputy parliamentary leader Khawaja Izharul Hassan drew the attention of the House towards the atrocities carried out by the police and Rangers. “Despite the interior minister’s assurances, men in plain clothes arrest our people,” he said.

“Whenever any incident takes place, dozens of our workers are arrested,” he said. “A few PPP ministers issued statements that the attacks on cops were a reaction to the ongoing operation but we want to know why are only our innocent activists being caught?”

Information minister Sharjeel Memon responded that he can prove who is behind the violence and extortion in Karachi. “Don’t become emotional and make the Karachi operation controversial,” he said. “We have all the records and data on how businessmen are being killed and who the targeted killers are.”

Memon clarified that the operation is not against any group or party, only against criminals. “Many people have been arrested from Lyari, which is a stronghold of our party. No one has made a fuss about that in the House,” he added before he sat down. The MQM members wanted to react but the speaker requested both parties’ members to calm down.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 15^th, 2014.