Pakistan PM vows action against land mafia after ‘shocking’ details

Tariq Butt, Correspondent

Prime Minister Imran Khan on Sunday said that the first phase of the digitalised cadastral mapping of Pakistan had detected a massive encroachment of state land worth Rs5,595 billion (Rs5.5 trillion).

On Twitter, the prime minister shared the “shocking facts” coming out of the digitalised land record revealing that the encroached properties also included forest land valuing Rs1,869 billion.

“The most shocking facts to come out are: 1. The huge total value of all encroached state & 3 major cities land — approximately Rs5,595 billion; 2. The approximate value of encroached forest land — Rs1,869 billion,” he wrote on Twitter.

He said the encroachment had also aggravated Pakistan’s existing lack of sufficient forest cover. He said like the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs), the government also faced “massive resistance” while beginning the cadastral mapping of Pakistan to digitalise land records.

“Results of Phase 1 survey of state lands show why the resistance: phenomenal state land encroachment including of forest land through land mafia-political elite connivance,” he commented.

With this accurate digital record, he said the government would now take action against these land mafias and their facilitators. Earlier, in a press conference SAPM Malik Amin Aslam said in Punjab and KP, around 160,000 acres of state land was encroached.

The forest land mapping of 30,000 square km was also completed and 700,000 acres of forest land was found to have been intruded by the land mafia. Takhtpari Forest in Rawalpindi had a total of 2,210 acres area out of which 755 acres encroached.

The Lohi Bher Forest had over 57 per cent (629 acres) of its total area encroached by land mafia.