PM asked provinces to get land data verified in two months
Prime Minister Imran Khan has pledged to soon launch an operation to reclaim land from illegal occupants after the first phase of cadastral mapping detected massive encroachment of state land worth Rs.5.59 trillion.
According to the data shared by the premier on Twitter, land encroached in Karachi, Lahore, and Islamabad alone is valued at over Rs.2.6 trillion.
“The total value of all encroached state land and those in the three major cities stood at approximately Rs5.5 trillion, whereas the land encroached in three major cities (Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad) alone was valued at Rs2.63trillion. Similarly, encroached forest land was worth around Rs1.86 trillion,” the prime minister stated in a tweet while sharing, what he called, shocking facts.
“This has aggravated Pak’s existing lack of sufficient forest cover,” he tweeted.
Imran Khan had launched the cadastral mapping of Islamabad in September this year to curb land grabbing and ensure land transactions are conducted transparently.
In a series of tweets, the premier wrote that the incumbent government faced strong confrontation when it started digitalization of land records through cadastral mapping, comparing resistance with the “protests over EVMs [electronic voting machines]”.
“Results of Phase 1 survey of state lands show why the resistance: phenomenal state land encroachment including [that] of forest land through land mafia-political elite connivance,” he added.
Encroached lands:
The survey found that most of the encroachments have been made on the lands of:
- Forest department
- Wapda
- Pakistan Railways
- Civil Aviation Authority
- National Highways, and
- Evacuee Trust Property
Terming the record, “accurate”, PM Imran Khan said the government would now take action against the land grabbers and their facilitators.
Earlier in the day, Special Assistant to the PM on Climate Change Malik Amin Aslam shared the cadastral maps of State lands prepared by the Survey of Pakistan. The survey was conducted on lands of Punjab, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan. The survey team is yet to get the data from Sindh authorities.
Provinces asked to verify data in two months
Earlier, Imran Khan on Friday asked the provincial governments to complete verification of cadastral mapping data within two months to get state land relieved from illegal occupants. He asked the provinces to take help from the Survey of Pakistan department in verification of mapping data.