Punjab’s land records

Capital suggestion

A relative of mine owns a piece of land in a Lahore suburb. In 2011, he had gone to the Patwari to get a fard (the document that shows details of ownership). The Patwari demanded Rs500,000 (and later agreed on a cash payment of Rs350,000).

Last month my relative had put up his piece of land for sale – and was dreading going back to the patwari. To his surprise, there was no patwari. To his surprise, there was a Service Center (Araazi Record Centre). To his surprise, the service centre staff assured him the issuance of fard within 30 minutes (the staff was mostly women). To his surprise, the service centre staff charged Rs350 – as opposed to the Rs350,000 paid to the ppatwari – for the issuance of the fard. To his surprise, the service centre staff assured him the transfer of ownership within 50 minutes.

Shehbaz Sharif, Punjab’s longest serving chief minister, has done something that other provinces ought to copy – the Land Record Management Information System (LRMIS).

On June 15, 2010, the first ever live mutation done in Pakistan was done in Punjab whereby “three mutations were entered at the service centre. During the mutation process the seller and buyer were both present, their biometric identification and photos were recorded and made a part of the record and the revenue officer approved the entry of mutation digitally using his biometric identification as well as his password. The record was instantaneously updated and copies of updated record were provided to the parties along with a copy of the mutation.”

The entire project was financed by The World Bank and pilot projects were undertaken in Kasur, Lahore, Rahim Yar Khan and Gujrat.

Currently, Land Record Service Centres are operational in 143 tehsils and sub-tehsils of Punjab (out of a total of 134 tehsils and 21 sub-tehsils). By early 2016, land records had been computerised in 30 districts and 92 service centres were linked online. Additionally, Google mapping (Naqsha-Araazi) of Lahore, Lodhran and Hafizabad has been completed.

Haqooq-e-Araazi or land search can be done online in Lahore, Lodhran, Hafizabad, Okara, Attock, Bahawalnagar, Bahwalpur, Jhang, Jhelum, Hafizabad, Khanewal, Khosab and Rajanpur.

Service centre office hours are from 8am to 8pm. The LRMIS has corrected some five million discrepancies and on average the service centres are issuing 150,000 fards a month plus some 150,000 land transfer deals are being approved every month.

The LRMIS is all about ending the patwar culture. The LRMIS is about eradicating corruption from the revenue department. The LRMIS is about the maintenance of land records through biometric data records. The LRMIS is about the provision of transparent computerised revenue records to their legitimate owners. The LRMIS is about minimising fraud and tempering. The LRMIS is about reducing the heavy load of land disputes clogging our courts. And the LRMIS is about the routing out of the patwari mafia.

Someone intelligent once said, “If computers get too powerful, we can organise them into a committee – that will do them in.

The writer is a columnist based in Islamabad.

Email: farrukh15@hotmail.com  Twitter: @saleemfarrukh