‘State land worth billions illegally allotted to influential persons, builders and land mafia in Karachi’

State land worth billions of rupees in Karachi has been illegally allotted to influential individuals, land mafia and builders, findings of an official inquiry have shown.

The inquiry was initiated by the Chief Minister’s Inspection, Enquiries, and Implementation Team Department into the illegal allotment of thousands of acres of land, which was done by tampering with official records of rights, and massive forgery has been suspected.

The task of the conducting the inquiry was assigned to the Chief Minister’s Inspection Team by former caretaker chief minister Justice (retd) Maqbool Baqar following many public complaints. In pursuance of the directions of Baqar, an investigation team comprising CM Inspection Team Member Agha Aijaz Pathan, Section Officer Syed Amjad and revenue members Shaukat Bhangwar and Supervising Tapedar Mir Barkat Talpar was formed to look into the land records of five districts of Karachi -- West, East, Korangi, Malir and Keamari.

The alleged illegal allotment of state land was done from 2012 to 2023, despite a ban on land allotment by the Supreme Court of Pakistan. The apex court, seized with many petitions and suo moto proceedings, had restrained the Sindh government, Board of Revenue and Sindh Land Utilisation Department from mutation, allotment, transfer, and or conversion of any state land or keeping any transaction or entry in the record of the rights.

The investigation team initiated its work and in its first phase it determined that forgery was done on 5,500 acres of land in some parts of Manghopir Tehsil of District West alone.

Sources of the Sindh Board of Revenue informed The News that as the revelations of the first phase, the influential mafia involved in the land fraud intervened and had the investigation stopped.

Chairman Chief Minister’s Inspection, Enquiries, and Implementation Team Department Muhammad Rafiq Buriro has told The News that due to a shortage of staff and non-cooperation of revenue officers, especially officers of the Board of Revenue (BoR), the investigation work has been stalled.

Buriro said the first phase of the investigation has been completed in which his team has detected fraud regarding five thousand acres of land. He added that Board of Revenue officials are not providing the required records though several official letters had been written to them. He concluded that the investigation would be resumed very soon.

Besides the claim of Chairman Buriro, a report of land fraud of five thousand plus acres was submitted to him by a member of his team to forward it to the CM and the chief secretary for further legal action. The report has been pending at his office despite the passage of over one month.

The investigation team is said to have identified government officials, private individuals and other beneficiaries of the large-scale fraud.

Besides the main task of inquiry, the committee was also asked to investigate the illegal allotment of lands by the Land Utilisation Department in Karachi, the alleged fraudulent entries made by revenue officers in the record of rights to benefit private individuals, builders and land mafia, the falsification of the revenue records and cases of destruction of records.

According to the inquiry report, the team was told by the District West DC that the revenue record of Taluka Manghopir was burnt in the fire in the DC office in the year 2021; however, the DC could not explain how the property and land transactions were done in the absence of original records.

The team’s investigation revealed that a fire in the revenue records of Taluka Manghopir in 2021 was deliberately set to cover up the falsification of the records.

According to the inquiry report, the records of the domiciles given illegally to Afghan nationals in return for heavy bribes are not available at the DC office and are missing.

The inquiry report, besides recommending strict legal and departmental action against the involved persons, has suggested referring the matter to the National Accountability Bureau for a thorough investigation.