824,210 acres state land in Punjab, KP, Balochistan encroached: Farrukh

ISLAMABAD: Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Farrukh Habib on Tuesday said digital survey of around 81,209 square kilometers land had so far been carried out that revealed encroachment of some 824,210 acres of state land worth Rs3 trillion in Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan.

He said this while addressing a news conference. Around 88 percent work on (digitalisation of) total land (record) in Punjab, KP and Balochistan has been completed, he added. Flanked by Special Assistant to the Prime Minster on Capital Development Authority Ali Nawaz Awan, Farrukh said out of the total encroached land, around 675,615 acres were meant to grow forests, but were occupied illegally by illegal occupants allegedly in connivance with certain people of the previous governments.

The minister it was unfortunate that the forest land worth over 1,800 billion was encroached in Pakistan, while the entire world was stressing over growing trees to tackle the looming threat of climate changes.

Prime Minister Imran Khan was the first leader in the country’s history who was keen to ensure massive afforestation, he said referring to recent speech of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson at the United Nations General Assembly, where he praised PM Imran Khan, asking the world leaders to follow his steps in neutralising the climate changes threat.

Divulging details, he said 8,256 acres land of Railways worth around Rs307 billion, 816 acres land of the Civil Aviation Authority having value of around Rs98 billion, National Highways’ land valuing approximately Rs52 billion and the land of Evacuee Trust worth Rs117 billion had been encroached across the three provinces.

The minister also shared details of private land encroached by the illegal occupants in the major cities, saying its record was compiled after completing the digitalisation. He said around 7,000 kanals land was encroached in Karachi having worth of around Rs650 billion, whereas 10,500 kanals of land valuing Rs1,500 billion was illegally occupied in Lahore and total encroachments worth Rs500 billion came to the fore in Islamabad.

Total value of the state and private lands encroached by the encroachers was of around Rs5,500 billion, Farrukh noted. He said this became possible with the help of cadastral mapping which provided exact information about recent and past status of a land through Georeferencing feature of Google.

The minister said the promise made by Prime Minister Imran Khan for crucial land reforms had almost been fulfilled as the cadastral mapping of the state land was in final stages, adding that it was for the first time in the history of Pakistan that the land record was being digitalised across the country through cadastral mapping.

He said the provincial governments of Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan had extended full cooperation for the digitalisation of land record, but the Sindh government remained committed to its tradition of creating hurdles in all those good initiatives taken by the Centre.

He said the Sindh government was not cooperating deliberately in that regard, which proved that the provincial authorities were somehow involved in providing support to the land grabbers.

He said since the record had been obtained through cadastral mapping, the relevant departments had started taking actions against the encroachments.

Responding to a query, the minister said the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PMLN) had the history of telling lies to the public and attacking the state institutions, including the judiciary. He said the PMLN had resorted to almost every trick to prove their innocence, but failed to justify the purchase of flats in London by the Sharif family through ill-gotten money.