The
land ownership is a paramount factor to reduce poverty. In Pakistan, people use
their land for housing, agriculture, business, and for several other income
generating purposes. The land management system and the process used by the
revenue department for transferring and registration of land related services
in Pakistan are very poor.? Revenue
department grants sole responsibility and authority to Patwari (a low-grade government
employee who manages, verifies and transfers ownership of the land associated
with revenue department) to transfer and register the land ownership from one
party to another. It is a general observation that patwari abuses power and
gives illegal favour (in terms of land ownerships) to estate agents, property
dealers, politicians and get lump-sum amount of money in return. In other words,
the land management system is not transparent and poorly monitored. The real
owners of the land spend their whole life in the courts for the sake of justice.
In order to verify the ownership of land, one has to spend a lot of money to
pay lawyers? fees and no one can guarantee of getting justice.? The state agency so far fails to address such
issues in Pakistan. One, who has more power, money and contacts with higher
authorities, always win the case.

In
Sukkur, such type of discrepancies have been reported too. Therefore, the dialogue
forum focused on the issue of ambiguities produced by the result of poor land
ownership services provided by the revenue department. The state in the subject
areas is not properly implementing the policy guidelines. People having power
can easily start big projects without informing locals; for example, if someone
wants to set up a company or a factory, he can easily displace local people and
start the project while abusing his authority and power. Issue of lack of
monitoring mechanism in the department concerned also came to light during the
session.?

A
peace committee was formed to disseminate information about land and housing
schemes among the local people to make them aware about the verification system
of land documents. The committee with the help of police will also take action
against all the illegal occupents of lands. The committee will prepare an effective
action plan for the builders, estate agents and also build the capacity of
their staff.? The member of revenue
department and Assistant Commissioner (AC), who is also the member of peace
committee, will help the peace committee get relevant information.

List of Participants

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