Pakistan: Questions, answers, referrals: Land grabbing issue continues as districts fail to cooperate | Land Portal
Language of the news reported: 
English

By: Our Correspondent

Date: March 29th 2016

Source: Express Tribune


PESHAWAR: As the government admitted its helplessness in the house in failing to stop land grabbers, opposition members relentlessly questioned “why”, during the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Assembly session on Monday.


The proceedings occurred after prayers for people who lost their lives in the Lahore blast. Asad Qaiser, the K-P Assembly speaker asked lawmakers to submit a joint resolution condemning the attack in Gulshan-e-Iqbal Park of Lahore which would be introduced in Tuesday’s (today) sitting.


Illegal land seizure


Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz lawmaker Sardar Zahoor Awan raised the issue of land grabbers when he asked Ministry of Zakat & Usher, Auqaf, Hajj and Religious Affairs to elucidate on the department’s efforts to recover land from illegal occupants in Mansehra.


According to the department, 5,396 kanals of their land in Mansehra was under illegal occupation – taken by other government departments and/or transferred illegally in peoples’ names in 1950.  Department minister Habibur Rehman, who is from Jamaat-e-Islami, admitted to his helplessness in recovering his department’s land, saying district administrations across the province were not cooperating.


Rehman, who, always gives clear answers to queries in the house, said he had sent a letter to the chief minister complaining about the lack of cooperation. The CM formed a committee chaired by himself but the body could only meet once a year, said Rehman.


He said the Supreme Court decided to give 36,113 kanals of land to the department, “but we cannot get possession and need the support of district administration and police.” According to Rehman, a majority of land grabbing cases were in courts and his department has escalated work on the litigations. When Sardar Aurangzeb Nalotha of PML-N enquired about barricades and subsequent government inaction, Qaiser asked Minister for Local Government and Rural Development Inayatullah Khan to respond. “We will take up the issue with the CM and resolve it,” Inayatullah said.


Sardar Babak of ANP asked the speaker to give a ruling to make the job easy in all areas where land was taken illegally. Inayatullah, however, called it a “very sensitive issue” and requested the speaker not to give any ruling over as he feared if the government failed to recover the land, the speaker’s decorum will be affected.


At the end of the discussion, the question was referred to the house’s concerned standing committee.


Land record computerisation


In reply to questions, the revenue department stated 95% of the work due to take place in phase one had been completed in DI Khan, Bannu, Kohat, Peshawar, Mardan, Abbottabad and Buner. Work on service delivery centres in districts was under way. It added phase two of the programme includes 12 districts and while 30% of land record computerisation had been completed, work would end in 2019.


PML-N lawmaker Sobia Khan was dissatisfied with the department’s answer and criticised them for slow progress.


In the absence of the concerned minister, Shah Farman was asked to respond and he said the questions were answered completely and Sobia was questioning efficiency of the government. “If she can give any suggestions for further improvement, she is welcome, otherwise the answers are plain and clear,” he said. Farman added this was the first government to have taken this initiative.


Legislation


Minister for Finance Muzaffar Said tabled Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Civil Servants Retirement Benefits and Death Compensation (Amendment) Bill 2016 which defines the amount of money civil servants will get at the time of retirement.


The bill is likely to be criticised by civil servants who are retiring in the first five years on the commencement of the act. This is because the bill is silent on money deduction from their salaries in group insurance during their service.


--


Read original article here


Photo source: World Bank Photo Collection via Flickr/Creative Commons (CC By-NC-ND 2.0). Photo: © Curt Carnemark / World Bank

Copyright © Source (mentioned above). All rights reserved. The Land Portal distributes materials without the copyright owner’s permission based on the “fair use” doctrine of copyright, meaning that we post news articles for non-commercial, informative purposes. If you are the owner of the article or report and would like it to be removed, please contact us at hello@landportal.info and we will remove the posting immediately.

Various news items related to land governance are posted on the Land Portal every day by the Land Portal users, from various sources, such as news organizations and other institutions and individuals, representing a diversity of positions on every topic. The copyright lies with the source of the article; the Land Portal Foundation does not have the legal right to edit or correct the article, nor does the Foundation endorse its content. To make corrections or ask for permission to republish or other authorized use of this material, please contact the copyright holder.

Share this page