Land dispute cases on the rise in twin cities

[Salman]

Land dispute cases on the rise in twin cities

* 953 cases of land dispute registered in lower courts in last four months


ISLAMABAD: The land mafia is operating scot-free in the twin cities, resulting in an increase in the number of cases of land disputes.

As many as 953 such cases have been registered in lower courts in the last four months (October 2011-January 2012).

The record of these courts revealed that 3,684 cases of land dispute were registered during January 2010-September-2011 – the majority of cases were registered against private housing societies. It has been revealed that a landowner often sells his or her property to three or four persons separately. The court of Senior Civil Judge Mahmood Haroon received 229 cases of land dispute in the last four months. Of these cases, 172 were from the rural areas of capital.

The court of Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) Yar Muhammad Gondal registered 167 cases of land dispute during the period – 138 cases were reported from rural areas and the rest from urban areas.

The court of ASJ Kamran Bashrat Mufti registered 112 cases; ASJ Wajahat Hussain 218, Civil Judge Shabana Hameed Mughal 121 and Civil Judge Nadeem Anjum registered 106 cases of land dispute.

Generally, land-dispute cases take ages to be resolved. Such cases can even continue from one generation to the next. This situation results in hopelessness among petitioners. The majority of land disputes are witnessed in relatively less developed areas. Satellite Town, Jhangi Sayedian, Alipur Farash, Phulgaran, Bhara Kahu and Sihala are among places where cases of land dispute are high in number.

According to law, sale of real estate in the country normally takes place through a document called Sale Deed. However, such a document is not needed for the sale and purchase of real estate in the Defence Housing Authority (DHA). In some cases, people may opt for executing an agreement to sell a property even before the execution of the Sale Deed.

Also, before purchasing real estate, complete and thorough search in respect of title of the seller to the real estate must be carried out. A general practice is to investigate title of the current seller and any previous owner(s) for the last 20 years. The original title document in favour of the vendor must be obtained along with other relevant documents including mutation in favour of the vendor, a fresh copy of fard, aks shajra and an NOC.

District court nazir, Muhammad Riaz, told Daily Times that cases of land dispute are comparatively more complicated than other criminal cases due to lack of concrete evidence. He said absence of lawyers and witnesses is also a factor that contributes to delay in verdicts. “When the parties concerned do not appear before court, we are bound to delay a case until next hearing,” he said.