Digital survey reveals 824210 acres of state land in Punjab. Farrukh Habib, Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting, said on Tuesday that a digital survey of approximately 81,209 square kilometres of land had been completed, revealing encroachment on approximately 824,210 acres of state land worth Rs 3 trillion in Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and Balochistan.
“Approximately 88% of the work on [digitalization of] total land [record] in Punjab, KP, and Balochistan has been completed.” “Of the total surveyed land, 824,210 acres of state land have been encroached, with a conservative estimate of Rs 3,000 billion,” the minister said during a news conference here.
Farrukh, who was accompanied by Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Capital Development Authority, Ali Nawaz Awan, stated that out of the total encroached land, approximately 675,615 acres were meant to grow forests but were illegally occupied by illegal occupants allegedly in collusion with certain people from previous governments.
Digital survey reveals 824,210 acres of state land in Punjab.
He expressed regret that forest land worth more than $1,800 billion had been encroached upon in Pakistan at a time when the entire world was concerned about growing trees to combat the looming threat of climate change.
Prime Minister Imran Khan was the first leader in the country’s history who was eager to ensure massive afforestation, he said, referring to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s recent speech at the United Nations General Assembly in which he praised PM Imran Khan and urged world leaders to follow his lead in combating climate change.
He revealed that 8,256 acres of railway land worth approximately Rs 307 billion, 816 acres of Civil Aviation Authority land worth approximately Rs 98 billion, National Highways land worth approximately Rs 52 billion, and Evacuee Trust land worth approximately Rs 117 billion had encroached across the three provinces.
The minister also shared information about private land encroached upon by illegal occupants in major cities, claiming that a record had been compiled after the digitization was completed.
He claimed that 7,000 kanals of land worth Rs 650 billion were illegally occupied in Karachi, while 10,500 kanals of land worth Rs 1,500 billion were illegally occupied in Lahore, and total encroachments worth Rs 500 billion were discovered in Islamabad.
Farrukh estimated that the total value of state and private lands encroached by encroachers was around Rs 5,500 billion.
He stated that this was made possible by cadastral mapping, which provided precise information about the current and past status of land via Google’s Georeferencing feature.
The promise made by Prime Minister Imran Khan for critical land reforms was almost fulfilled, he said, as cadastral mapping of state land was nearing completion, adding that for the first time in Pakistan’s history, land records were being digitalized across the country through cadastral mapping.
Provincial governments from Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and Balochistan had offered full cooperation for the digitalization of land records, but the Sindh government remained committed to its tradition of putting roadblocks in the way of the center’s good intentions.
He claimed that the Sindh government was deliberately not cooperating in this regard, demonstrating that the provincial authorities were somehow involved in providing support to land grabbers.
According to the minister, since the record was obtained through cadastral mapping, the relevant departments have begun taking action against the encroachments.
In response to a question, he stated that the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) had a history of spreading lies to the public and attacking state institutions such as the judiciary.
He claimed that the PML-N tried almost every trick to prove their innocence, but failed to justify the Sharif family’s purchase of flats in London with ill-gotten money.
