RAHIM YAR KHAN: A 16-kanal piece of Auqaf department land on prime location allegedly grabbed by the revenue department employees is being sold for residential plots behind the new General Bus Stand, Sadiqabad city.

The district administration officials are not forthcoming about the issue.

The story started when a resident of Mauza Samdani, Imtiaz Haroonia Ghulam Ghous, son of Sundhi Khan, dedicated 396 kanal agricultural land to the government for the Urs of Pir Abdul Qadir Jilani through mutation No 319 on Dec 14, 1958.

The land was handed over to the Auqaf department in 1972 through letter No 1 (166)-Auqaf/71/DWF and the department leased it out. At that time the revenue department patwari mentioned 375 kanal and 17 marla in the register by using lead pencil.

In 1977, Ghulam Ghous’ daughter-in-law Fehmida Begum through transfer mutation No 664 converted 32 kanal of Mauza Samdani to Mauza Bindour. Some revenue employees also illegally transferred 16 kanal of Auqaf department.

The Auqaf department wrote many letters to the revenue department for endorsement of mutation of 16 kanal but to no avail. In 2006, the Auqaf department again wrote a letter to tehsildar for the mutation of the remaining 16 kanal but nothing has been done to date.

Auqaf District Manager Muhammad Umair told this correspondent that an influential land grabber had started making roads to sell the plots with the help of an assistant to a patwari. Currently, the market value of an acre is almost Rs40 million to Rs50 million because of proximity to the general bus stand. Mr Umair immediately filed an application to the DPO.

A patwari confirmed that the 375 kanal and 17 marla land had been registered in the name of the Auqaf department. He said a major portion of land was disputed and litigation was going on.

Additional Deputy Commissioner (Revenue) Dr Jahanzeb Hussain Labar said he would comment on it after getting information about the latest situation but he did not reply.

Sadiqabad Assistant Commissioner Aamir Iftikhar too did not respond to the call and text message.

Published in Dawn, June 8th, 2020