LAHORE: The patwaris, notoriously known for their corruption and misdeeds, are struggling to survive and have decided to take to streets for acceptance of their genuine demands, said the leader of the Association of Patwaris.
As the Punjab government has almost computerised land records and other related data to make them easily available to their owners, as well as to break the patwari stranglehold on these records, the fraternity of patwaris seems perturbed by these developments and agitated to become a part of the new system.
“We will encircle the office of Board of Revenue and stage a sit-in there after Eid,” said Anjuman Patwarian (Association of Patwaris) President Abdul Majid Jatt, while addressing an emergency press conference held at the Lahore Press Club on Friday along with other leaders of the association.
“We have become irrelevant in the new system and the government has not implemented a plan for patwaris, which was to give them necessary computer training and job in the computerised land record system,” said Malik Zahid Afzal, the secretary general of the association, adding: “The livelihood of 15,000 patwaris is at stake due to the new system.” He claimed that the patwaris are a deprived section of the society and are low-grade employees. He said that the patwar system was introduced in the year 1540 but the government is hell-bent on destroying the age-old system. Comparing the old patwar system with computerised land record system, a patwari claimed: “About five Assistant Director Land Record (ADLR) have been arrested so far for committing corruption since the inception of the new system while not a single tehsildar was ever arrested over corruption charges.”
Malik Zahid Afzal appealed to Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Lahore High Court chief justice and Punjab chief secretary to take notice of the situation and implement their plan for utilisation of their resource.
Patwari is a term used in Pakistan and India for a land record officer at the local level. The patwar is responsible for assessing and collecting agricultural revenue, recording inheritance, sale and transfer of land, and maintaining all land records in its area of jurisdiction. They are notorious for corruption in the previous land record system and PTI chief Imran Khan uses this term time and again against his political rivals, the Sharif brothers. They have had a major sway in politics due to their high influence in the areas of their jurisdiction.
A patwari used to control 17 registers containing records such as Register Haqdaran Zamindar, Register Khasra Gurdawri, Field Book, Register Inteqalat, and even maintains the record of rains, storms, thefts, dacoities and epidemics.
A major source of ‘income’ of patwari was a land-related document, which is a certificate of possession called the ‘fard’ which was only to be granted by him. The ‘fard’ is a guarantee for furnishing bail in court cases, proof of permanent residence to obtain a domicile certificate and secure loans from financial institutions. The document is now easily available in 15 minutes through the computerised land record system.
Though patwaris are BPS-6 grade employees, the patwari was known for changing land records at will and tampering with them.
Punjab CM Shehbaz Sharif has been working against the patwari culture and the work on land record computerisation has almost been completed. The modern land record management and information system have been launched in all tehsils of the province with the cooperation of the World Bank.
This is not true that the work on land record computerization has almost been completed as a lot of work is still to be done and above all there are a lot of wrong data entered in computerized system partly because of wrong information provided by Patwaris. I belong to Dist Chakwal Tehsil Talagang the city area of Tehsil Talagang has zero progress for computerized system the remote areas are easy to be computerized
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