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Friday July 18, 2025

Digitisation of land record: Punjab, KP share data with Centre, Sindh yet to follow

By Our Correspondent
February 20, 2021

ISLAMABAD: Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have provided the state lands data of all districts to the Survey General of Pakistan while data from Sindh was awaited as the provincial cabinet was yet to accord approval to it.

This information was shared with Prime Minister Imran Khan here during a meeting of the National Coordination Committee for Housing, Construction and Development, which he presided on Thursday. He was briefed about the promotion of construction activities in the country.

During the meeting, the prime minister was also briefed about the digitization of land record in different provinces by the Survey General of Pakistan and the forum was told that the data of state lands from all the 36 districts of Punjab including the data of Masawis (village maps) had been provided to the Survey General of Pakistan.

Moreover, the tax data of 730,000 properties of Lahore including the properties of Auqaf (Trust) had also been provided. Chief Secretary Khyber Pakhtunkhwa told the meeting that the data of state lands in all the districts of the province had been provided to the Survey General of Pakistan.

The prime minister was told by the Survey General of Pakistan that Sindh government was yet to provide the data. On the query of the prime minister, Chief Secretary Sindh said that the matter had been placed before the provincial cabinet and data would be provided after approval from Sindh cabinet. Speaking on the occasion, prime minister said that digitization of land records including the state land was the need of hour, adding that the non-provision of data will strengthen the impression in masses that illegal occupation of state lands and Qabza Mafia had the backing of influential personalities, therefore, it was important to dispel such impression.

He directed to provide all the data of state lands to the Survey General of Pakistan for digitization. He added that placement of all the data of approved and unapproved housing societies at the websites of development authorities concerned should be ensured.

The prime minister directed that besides the availability of data at the websites of development authorities, central data bank should also be established at provincial level so that all the details of such projects may be made available to Pakistanis especially the Overseas Pakistanis.

Imran was told that the investment of Rs 353.43 billion in the construction sector projects in Punjab would generate economic activities worth Rs 1,767.15 billion and create 315,678 jobs.

The Chief Secretary Punjab told the prime minister that the applications of construction on 87.03 million square feet in the province, including Lahore (38%) and Metropolitan Corporation (22%), Rawalpindi (18%), Faisalabad (11%), and Multan (10%) had so far been received.

With the approval of construction at 41.07 million square feet so far, the construction activities in all the districts of Punjab were going on and that 11,349 out of 17,692 applications received at the portal regarding construction had been approved.

Chief Secretary Khyber Pakhtunkhwa told the meeting that with a total of 3,634 applications (manual and online) received so far, 3,158 applications (87%) had been approved. With only 9% returned due to various reasons, 4% applications were under process of approvals.

The meeting was told that the applications received for construction at an area of 10.854 million square feet in Khyber Pakthunkhwa so far would generate economic activities worth Rs 190 billion.

Chief Secretary Khyber Pakhtunkhwa further told the meeting that with 66% increase in receipt of applications from October 15, 2020 till date, (62% approvals) and volume of construction area (128%), the expected income generation and employment opportunities had also witnessed 128% increase.

Chief Secretary Sindh told the meeting that a total of 22 construction projects have been approved in the province.

Prime minister directed the Chief Secretary Sindh to pace up the process of approvals so as to promote construction activities and the resultant economic momentum in the province.

On the promotion of construction activities in the country and speeding up the approval process by the provincial governments, the Chief Secretary Punjab informed the Prime Minister that so far applications have been received for construction on 87.03 million square feet: This includes Lahore 38%, Metropolitan Corporation 22%, Rawalpindi 18%, Faisalabad 11% and Multan 10%.

The meeting was informed that up to December 29, applications for 62.33 million square feet of construction had been received. That number has now reached 87.03 million square feet and that construction activities were taking place in all the districts of the province.

The meeting was informed that so far 41.07 million square feet of construction applications have been approved. The area of approvals up to December 29 was 30 million square feet.