Mansha Bomb case: SC seeks details of retrieved lands, their return to owners

LAHORE: The Supreme Court on Sunday sought a detailed report from the city authorities about the land yet to be recovered from illegal possession of Malik Mansha Ali Khokhar alias Mansha Bomb.

A two-judge bench, headed by the chief justice, heard a petition of an overseas Pakistani against police's purported inaction against Mansha, who is accused of possessing billions of rupees’ worth of illegally acquired lands, at the Supreme Court Lahore Registry.

As the hearing resumed, District Commissioner Lahore told the court that the Lahore Development Authority (LDA) had yet to hand over the land recovered from Mansha to the petitioners.

The top judge ordered the LDA and Punjab Revenue Department to submit details of the land, grabbed by Mansha Bomb. Mansha had purchased 32 kanals of land back in 1992, which he sold out later, the deputy commissioner informed the bench. Chief Justice Saqib Nisar asked that according to which law the “patwar circle” was working and what the role of the revenue department was in residential areas. “No serious efforts had been made to urbanisation,” the top judge observed. The bench then sought a detailed report from the LDA, revenue department and the district government about retrieval of land from Mansha and its return to the rightful owners.

The Supreme Court on Sunday issued notices to all provincial governments and sought their replies regarding the functions of patwaris, kanoongos, and tehsildars in urban areas. As proceedings commenced, Advocate General Punjab Ahmad Awais apprised the bench that under the Land Revenue Act, all provinces maintained lands record.

He submitted that it would be in the interest of justice to know the viewpoint of other provinces as well. At this, the court issued notices to all provincial governments and observed that the next hearing of the case would be held in Islamabad.

Taking suo motu notice of the issue earlier, the chief justice had sought a complete report from the Punjab government about patwaris and patwarkhanas working in the metropolis. He asked that under what law, patwaris were preparing and maintaining land records after the establishment of the Punjab Land Revenue Authority (LRA).

The CJ regretted that they (patwaris) were committing fraud with innocent people, saying, “If the government fails to offer a legal justification for working of patwaris, I will remove all patwaris.” The CJ directed the Board of Revenue to submit proposals and determine how the property could be shared amongst them.