Smelling a rat, the Lahore High Court (LHC) on Friday sought a detailed report regarding total income and ‘land count’ of waqf lands, other than shrines, under the control of the Punjab Auqaf Department in the last three years with an affidavit from the officers responsible by November 26.
Exempting shrines, the court also sought records of land leased or sold in the last 3 years and records of the utilisation of funds acquired from it. The court told Aal-e-Ahmed, the counsel for the Auqaf Department, to place on record annual income and budget of the department along with income from waqf properties and their count.
Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed passed the order on a petition filed by Muhammad Ghalib Khan, who in 1971 gave waqf (gift) of some 415 kanals of agriculture land in two villages of Khanewal district and Shujaabad district in the name of the Punjab Auqaf Department chief administrator for two welfare projects. The petitioner claimed that the department wasted the agricultural land by not earning from it by proper utilisation.
The petitioner has made the Auqaf secretary, chief Administrator, estates director and Multan zonal administrator the respondents in the petition. The petitioner stated through his counsel Anwar Kamal that after signing the waqf deed of the land, he went abroad.
He returned to the country after 34 years in 2003 and was surprised that the department had not utilised his land according to the conditions laid down in the deed, as officers said only Rs 84,000 was earned from the land in the last three decades by leasing it out.
He said the department told him that the sum was earned by leasing the land out between 2002 and 2004 because before that time the land was under water and produced no crop. Ghalib requested the court to set aside the waqf deed signed on May 31, 1971 and return his land to him so he might devote it to other welfare projects.
He said similar to land he gave to the department, most of its other property in the province was unattended and unproductive and people had no access to information about the exact count of Auqaf lands and properties, most of which were leased, rented out, sold at low rates or illegally occupied.
