- Govt likely to lift a ban on sale, purchase of land in and around capital
ISLAMABAD: The government is mulling proposals to resolve issues of the capital’s land victims on a permanent basis, as some people have applauded grand anti-encroachment operations and some locals alleged that their properties were razed without due process.
Previously, the government had placed Section 4 of CDA by-law which prohibits the sale and purchase of the land by locals to curb corruption and various malpractices that led to arrests and inquiries in land and estate directorates.
The government is not only mulling permanent solutions to resolve the issues of the victims but also resolving to introduce legislation to streamline the cases pending of the land transfers and construction of model villages like Said Pur and other localities – Noor Pur Shahan, Saidpur, Malpur, Lakhval, Teeli Moori, Mochi Mohra, Java, Teeli and Ojri Kalaan – into the model villages.
Last week, the victims demanded that their villages and localities be given status of the model villages. However, since the capital still lacks the facility of computerised land record system which is known as the Land Record Management of Information System (LRMIS) and till to date follows the traditional filing system (Patwari system) to maintain its land record.
The task ahead would be momentous for the government. The litigation, pending of the court cases and local pressure groups won’t give in without resistance. Despite several promises by the previous governments, little to no progress is made on the ground in land computerisation.
In Punjab, most of the land record has been computerised while other provinces follow suit. The Land Records Management and Information System happens to be a revolutionary project to digitise paper-based land records.
Despite the ban on allotment of the plots in the CDA’s Land Directorate, the director and the additional director allotted plots against the rules through an illegal corrigendum issued by the directorate concerned where they’ve taken pretext of acquiring land for the service road and allotted land.
All 20 victims who benefited hailed from village Mera Bheri and had been compensated for their build up properties along with their plots. Furthermore, all the victims were given their compensatory plots in I-12/3.
As reported in this paper, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) arrested one former and three incumbent land directorate officers of the Capital Development Authority on the charges of illegal double allotment, which inflicted a loss of millions of rupees to the national exchequer.
