KARACHI, Oct 21 The Sindh Assembly has empowered the revenue department secretary to remove all entries made through forged documents in the record of rights since Jan 1, 1985, and have the land returned to the government.

Any person aggrieved by the order may prefer an appeal to the government, within 15 days from the date of such an action, or the decision will be final.

A bill to this effect was unanimously passed into law by the Sindh Assembly on Wednesday after brief speeches delivered by members across the house in support of the government's bill No 15 moved by Law Minister Ayaz Soomro under Rule 211 of the Rules of Business of the Assembly.

The house, which was called to order at 11.20am, after the completion of the business on the order of the day, was prorogued sine die at 3.05pm by Governor Ishratul Ibad Khan.

Before the governor's order was read out by Speaker Nisar Ahmad Khuhro, who presided over the sitting, the house in addition to the question hour and adoption of Bill 15, passed four resolutions unanimously. The resolutions were moved after the house granted permissions to their movers under Rule 211.

Dr Sikander Mandhro, who was the mover of the first resolution, made an emotional speech, highlighting the need for integration by providing equal opportunities to all students.

The resolution was supported by Dr Saghir Siddiqui, Syed Sardar Ahmad, Zahid Bhurgari, Humera Alwani, Makhdoom Jamil-uz-Zaman, Jam Madad Ali, Shazia Marri and Ayaz Soomro. It read “This assembly resolves and strongly recommends to the government of Sindh to formulate a uniform and integrated admission policy providing equal opportunities to the students of whole province to get advantage of better education in urban institutions, imparting quality education in various fields of study, and to spread out such facilities throughout the entire province by establishing campuses of such institutions to extend quality education to everyone which is the basic right of all citizens of the state safeguarded in the constitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan.”

By the second resolution, which was moved jointly by Ayaz Soomro and Syed Sardar Ahmad, it was recommended “to the provincial government to restore the Guzara allowance to be paid from Zakat funds to the needy and poor persons as it provides immediate relief to the people in the shapes of monthly financial assistance”.

Through its third resolution, moved by Muzaffar Ali Shujra, the assembly recommended to the government of Sindh “to carry out a comprehensive campaign of awareness for preventing genetically transmitted diseases, such as thalassaemia, haemophilia, HIV/AIDS, hepatitis etc, and make blood tests for these diseases mandatory for men and women before they get married.”

By its fourth resolution, moved jointly by Sardar Jam Tamachi and Law Minister Ayaz Soomro, the assembly recommended “to the government of Sindh that Taluka Daulatpur, Kazi Ahmed, of District Shaheed Benazirabad may be renamed as Taluka Kazi Ahmad.”

'An amended version'

Before moving Bill No 15 titled 'The cancellation of bogus entries (in the record of rights) of Government land Bill, 2009', the law minister through a motion withdrew Bill 14 from the order of the day, saying that Bill 15 was its amended version.

Highlighting the general principles of the bill, the law minister said that whereas massive bogus entries had been made in the record of rights relating to government land and had caused losses to the government of Sindh by depriving it of thousands of acres of land, it was expedient to enact a law to cancel bogus entries.

Rafique Engineer recalled that the land revenue record was burnt in the past, specifically mentioning the year 1988, and recently on Dec 27, 2007. He said big landlords had deprived small land-holders through manipulation with Tappedars and Mukhtiarkars. He said he himself was a victim of it, as he had been deprived of land of his grandfather in Thatta district.

Munawwar Ali Abbasi termed the bill the need of the hour and said instead of enforcing it from Jan 1, 1985, it should be effected from a further back date, and revenue officials found involved in the racket should be punished.

Humera Alwani said influential people were involved in grabbing land of the revenue, forest and irrigation departments.

Shaharyar Mehar gave an example of his own experience saying he had purchased a piece of land after the revenue officer gave clearance, but later he was informed that it was government land.

Bachal Shah said that the clout of Tappedar, particularly in the rural areas, was so much that once the wife of a deputy commissioner asked her husband when he would become a Tappedar.

Anwar Mehar said land grabbing and change in the record of rights was not only restricted to government land, but private owners also faced the same problem. He said there were many laws for retrieving lands from land grabbers, but the real issue was of their implementation. Tappedars made changes in the record so deceptively that often they escaped the law.

Nawab Taimour Talpur, welcoming the bill, stressed the need to extend the cover of the bill to private lands which would help poor farmers save their land from manipulation of Tappedars.

Rukhsana Shah said she was also a victim of Tappedar and EDO's manipulation, who had deprived her of her land.

Makhdoom Jamil-uz-Zaman said Tappedar's behaviour was no different from the SHO's, who behaved as a king within the remit of his police station.

Jam Tamachi called the need to computerise all land record at the earliest. However, he expressed the apprehension that if private lands were covered under the law, a series of litigation would begin as private parties who had disposed of their lands many years back might claim them back.

Syed Sardar Ahmad said that three years back, while travelling from Karachi to Hyderabad, he had found all government lands on both sides of the Superhighway and the National Highway grabbed by individuals.

He said the new law was needed to protect government lands as carrying an amendment in the Land Revenue Act was a lengthy process. Therefore, an initiative was taken to amend the act.

He said most bogus entries in the record were made after 1985 and the government land was grabbed.

Manzoor Wassan said mostly lands were grabbed in the districts of Karachi, Thatta, Jamshoro and Nara taluka through bogus entries, which should be investigated first, to be followed by in other districts of the province. He said that Tappedars used to charge Rs2.5 million per acre to transfer lands to individuals.

Jam Madad Ali said the bill was useful but if it was referred to the standing committee of the house to consider proposals as were made during discussion, it would become more effective.

Jam Mehtab, the revenue minister, winding up the discussion on the general principles, said the record showed that during the last 10 years havoc was played with government lands, particularly in Thatta, Jamshoro and Karachi by employees of the revenue department.

He said he himself was witness to burning of revenue record on the third day of the Dec 27, 2007 tragedy. He said correct record was available if the department worked honestly.

He asked the MPAs to extend cooperation to clean up the department, where 90 per cent Tappedars and Mukhtiarkars and other staff were corrupt and involved in changing land record on the basis of bogus documents.

The minister said he had issued instructions to all Mukhtiarkars that applicants should be provided certificate within a week and in case they did not get the certificate, he should be approached so that action be initiated against violators of his instructions.

After the general discussion, the law minister moved the bill clause by clause, followed by reading of the preamble of the bill, which was passed by the house into law.