AN insidious mode of dispossession by influential criminals has redrawn the limits of power and control in Karachi. For years, political and institutional connivance has spawned lethal land grabbers in the country’s largest city. As the construction sector expanded with the ascent of the middle class, powerful players smelt blood. A recent investigative story in this paper has pulled the wraps off this multi-tiered, ruinous land grab racket that usurps public and state property for residential and commercial purposes. It exposes how practically every zone in the metropolis is controlled by front men, each one of whom manages “receipts from each area under his control”. Meanwhile, instead of applying zoning regulations, protecting government acreage and green belts, the authorities are found to be hand in glove with the plunderers. The police collude by using force to dislodge people from their land.

This exploitation starkly reflects the helplessness of smallholders who lack access to the centres of power. Finalised with fake NOCs, without paper trails, these deals are shrouded in secrecy. Their beneficiaries, ranging from minions to masters, are known but unproven as criminals. According to the report, “in deh Bund Murad … [g]overnment land worth billions of rupees in various na class … was illegally transferred to private individuals… .” Several revenue officials were identified as “complicit … acquiring assets beyond their means”. Not one was put on trial. This game of smoke and mirrors has devastated the city and triggered anxiety among small land owners. The human cost is colossal, depriving farmers of land and livelihood, and pushes the urban poor out to the peripheries. Land grab also extracts an environmental toll: illegal constructions devour protected areas and drainage channels, and leave vast swathes denuded. Powerful interests must now make way for pro-people reform. Digitised land records should be accessible on the website of the Land Revenue Management Information Systems, public land cleared of encroachments, and private land returned to the original owners. Also, the development of public housing societies is overdue, while the authorities must implement a recent court decision to allot all state land after a public auction. Nothing short of a zero tolerance policy for the land mafia will work. Karachi should not be up for grabs.

Published in Dawn, February 15th, 2026