SINDH has made significant progress towards the computerisation of the revenue department’s record of land rights.

Board of Revenue (BoR) officials say around 2.5m entries of the past 30 years in all dehs of Sindh has been scanned, with the data indexed and having been entered into the database. It is now in the final phase of verification.

Besides, 0.55m entries from 2010 onwards are computerised. These are available online and have been provided to swift centres in 10 districts.

Computerisation will facilitate landowners to get certified documents pertaining to their land records. The farmers whose land record details are computerised will not have to shunt between offices of different mukhtiarkars. It will also save them time and money when they apply for agricultural loans as they will be able to easily obtain true copies of the relevant documents from any of the 10 swift centres.


The well-managed swift centres are said to be earthquake- and fire-proof. Watermarked papers having the Sindh government’s insignia are being used for issuing certified copies of the record of rights for each property to the landowners


The computerisation project — Land Administration Revenue Information Management System (LARIMS) — is being executed under the supervision of Zulfiqar Ali Shah, who has been the member Reforms Wing Special Cell of the provincial revenue department since 2011. The project is being done under the directives of the Supreme Court of Pakistan and former President Asif Zardari.

The swift centres that provide this facility are functioning in Hyderabad, Matiari, Tando Mohammad Khan, Jamshoro, Badin, Malir and Karachi East districts. Qualified staff has been hired for the remaining centres that are to be set up in other districts.

The computerisation process started following detailed orders passed by a division bench of the Sindh High Court in May 2009. A provincial record cell (PRC) was established and is functioning under the BoR in Hyderabad.

Initially, the BoR got the registers 7-A and 7-B and form-II printed, and these were given to mukhtiarkars across the province. The registers are especially designed with foolproof security features.

From October 2010 onwards, all entries regarding mutation have been made in them and the copies of all mutations/entries are also done in these registers. It is mandatory for these to be sent to the PRC, which then issues a scan number against each entry within seven days. The record only gets noted in the relevant taluka after a scan number against it has been.

Earlier on, the registers used to be only signed and stamped, but now the officer’s name and designation is also mentioned, along with his signature. To avoid interpolation or forgery, the area of land is mentioned in words as well as in figures.

According to revenue officers, the records of 870 out of 6,000 dehs of Sindh were burnt in arson attacks following the assassination of Benazir Bhutto in Rawalpindi on December 27, 2007.

“The chances of forgery and interpolation have been minimised to a greater extent and these can be easily identified or detected. The record of 620 dehs has been completely computerised and is now available online.”

The well-managed swift centres are said to be earthquake- and fire-proof. Thumb impressions are being ensured wherever necessary. Watermarked papers having the Sindh government’s insignia are being used for issuing certified copies of the record for rights to each property to the landowners. Besides, the application to obtain such copies is auto generated and also carries the photograph of the applicant.

In a nutshell, the access to revenue records has been simplified. “You can download an application named ‘Sindh Zameen’ on your cell phone, courtesy the BoR. To use this application, you will need to enter just your CNIC number and the details of your property/land will be available on your phone,” says one official.

The pending record entries are at the verification stage. The BoR intends to increase the number of swift centres to 26 by June 2016 — i.e. one for every district. Small farmers, who used to face insurmountable difficulties in obtaining their land records from the tapedars or the mukhtiarkars, will now be able to get their papers processed in a hassle-free manner.

Sindh Abadgar Board representative Mahmood Nawaz Shah believes that the programme will go a long way to help farmers get copies of the relevant certified land records to apply for agriculture credit. But, by and large, the farmers are not aware of this computerisation and it would have been appropriate had the BoR consulted them on the implementation of this project.

Currently, the sale certificates are not obtained through this project. These certificates will be issued once all records under LARIMS have been verified through the concerned deputy commissioners. Around 2.5m entries are to be verified, which means that the record of 30 years will be available on BoR computers if the project moves at its current pace. Needless to say, this needs to be expedited.

Published in Dawn, Business & Finance weekly, September 21st, 2015

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