LAHORE:Hundreds of citizens, especially from minorities, are running from pillar to post to register their legal property deals as revenue staff working under district administration is refusing registration of all such deals on the pretext that an NOC from National Commission for Minorities is required.
Reliable sources in revenue department revealed that several sub-registrars posted in provincial metropolis are denying registration of agreements to sell as well as transfer deeds of properties of minorities.
This on one hand is causing serious inconvenience to the applicants who have no other option but to grease the palms of the relevant staff while on the other hand is also causing huge financial loss to the government.
In some cases, the sub-registrars also defy clear orders of higher courts to register such agreements to sell, which is not transfer of property but need to be registered under Registration Amendment Act 2018.
Many applicants have appealed to the federal government to constitute National Commission for Minorities so that they could get NOCs for their properties and finalise their legal transactions.
The National Commission for Minorities was dissolved in 2018 and so far it was not constituted. Recently, National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has also initiated an inquiry into the issue on the complaint of Mansoor Hassan Khan, an advocate of Supreme Court of Pakistan. As per the complainant, in 2018, he entered into a property deal with the Salvation Army.
The Salvation Army is a Christian body working in Lahore since 1883 and was eventually incorporated under the Companies Act of 1913 in October, 1968. Before going to NAB, Mansoor Khan filed written complaints with all the relevant forums, including Commissioner Lahore, Senior Member Board of Revenue, DC Lahore, Assistant Commissioner Model Town and Sub-Registrar concerned for registration of his Agreement to Sell of the property, which he intended to purchase from the Salvation Army.
After spending almost one year in visiting the offices of the officers and writing letters to them, Mansoor Khan eventually went to the Lahore High Court for justice and filed a constitutional petition.
In his petition, he sought a direction to the sub-registrar Model Town to perform his legal obligations under Registration Act 1908.
“While refusing to register the document, reliance was placed by the Sub-Registrar on the provisions of the Protection of Communal Properties of Minorities Ordinance, 2002, in terms of which a ban had been imposed on the sale or transfer of minority communities properties unless NOC is given by the federal government,” he submitted in the petition adding the NOC has to be issued by the federal government on the recommendations of the National Commission for Minorities.
The court in its judgment dated 26/02/2020 allowed the petition and directed the Sub-Registrar to register the agreement to sale dated 21/05/2019 under the Act of 2018.
Mansoor Khan said that after getting the court order, he sent his lawyer to the Sub-Registrar along with the certified copy of the court orders he again refused to register the document.
In December 2019, Mansoor Khan also filed an application with NAB titled “Unbridled corruption among the Punjab revenue officials” dated 27/12/2019. “The undersigned is a Pakistani citizen whose only wish is that the State of Pakistan should allow him to live his life in an environment where he is not coerced into paying bribes to government officials even for those things which are 100 percent legal and aboveboard,” he stated in the application.
Describing his complaint, he said he entered into a contract for the purchase of a property in Lahore in May 2019 and paid a hefty earnest money. Through an amendment to the Registration Act in 2018, the registration of an agreement to sell was made mandatory.
His lawyer approached the relevant sub-registrar in September 2019 for the registration of the agreement to sell, which was verbally refused.
“Against this verbal refusal the undersigned filed complaints with DC Lahore, the Commissioner and SMBR on 19 September, 2019 but no action was taken,” he said. He personally met with SMBR, who was the competent authority and SMBR directed his PA to write a letter to DC Lahore, which was meaningless.
“Under Section 9(vi) of NAB Ordinance 1999 the holder of a public office commits corruption if he, inter alia fails to exercise his authority to prevent the grant or rendition of any undue benefit or favour, which he could have prevented by exercising his authority,” the complainant stated.
He appealed to NAB chairman to investigate the matter. He also requested LHC to order the establishment division to take action in this regard.
NAB, in response to his complaint, sent him a letter stating that his complaint has been duly registered and an ID (NABL20200106201449) is allotted to the complaint for further processing.
When contacted, the Additional Deputy Commissioner (Revenue) said that in Lahore value of property is very high and he had seen many cases in which people sell properties on Agreement to Sell. He said this is why the government has evolved extra verification system to counter any fraudulent practices.
To a question of defying orders of higher courts by sub-registrar, he said there must be a valid reason that sub-registrar is not registering the document. He said he has also seen fake court orders and now it is mandatory that every court order should be verified by the court itself.