Will take action against land mafia and their facilitators, says PM Imran
- Says like EVM, his government has faced 'massive resistance' while beginning cadastral mapping
Prime Minister Imran Khan said on Sunday that his government will take stern action against the land mafia and their facilitators after a massive encroachment of state land was detected in the first phase of digitised cadastral mapping of Pakistan.
Taking to Twitter, PM Khan revealed that the state land worth Rs5,595 billion (Rs5.59 trillion) had been encroached by the reinless mafia in three major cities — Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad — including forest land valuing Rs1,869 billion.
The Survey of Pakistan started the cadastral mapping of these cities in September. In the first phase, the survey was conducted on the lands of the Forest department, Railways, Civil Aviation Authority, National Highways and Evacuee Trust Property.
The premier said that like the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs), his government also faced “massive resistance” while beginning the cadastral mapping of Pakistan to digitise land records. He noted that the encroachment had also “aggravated Pakistan’s existing lack of sufficient forest cover.”
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“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 tweeted.
PM Khan vowed to take action against these encroachers and their facilitators with the help of this accurate digital record.
Earlier in the day, Special Assistant to Prime Minister (SAPM) on Climate Change Malik Amin Aslam said that around 160,000 acres of state land had been intruded in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
The SAPM said that forest land mapping of 30,000 square km had been completed, of which 700,000 acres of forest land was found to have been grabbed by the land mafia.
“Takhtpari Forest in Rawalpindi has a total of 2,210 acres area out of which 755 acres encroached,” Malik Amin said. “The Lohi Bher Forest had over 57 per cent (629 acres) of its total area encroached by land mafia.”
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