Information goldmine

In this article we will see the information collected, processed, maintained, and managed by the revenue department and other agencies in the country that can be employed to instantly create a Title Register.
Revenue department maintains various statements/documents, forms, maps, entries, registers eg Register Haqdaran-e-Zamin (Form XXXIV) showing the persons who are land-owners, tenants or who are entitled to receive any of the rents, profits or produce of the estate or to occupy land therein; the nature and extent of the interests of those persons, and the conditions and liabilities attaching thereto; and the rent, land-revenue, rates, cesses or other payments, due from and to each of those persons and to the government; a statement of customs respecting rights and liabilities in the estate called 'wajb ul arz'; cadastre/ a map of the estate called 'Lath Parch', drawn on a cotton cloth; field book (Form XII); genealogical tree, called 'Shajra Nasab' (Form III); index Khasra (survey) numbers (Form IV); alphabetical index of owners [and mortgagees] (Form V)/index Radeef-Var-Malikan wa Murtehanan; supplementary map called 'Tatima' (Form XIV); fard Badar/ corrections made in the record of rights (Form XV); checking and attestation notes by the Qanungo; final attestation certificate of Register Haqdaran Zamin by the Revenue Officer (Form XVI); register Girdawri/Crop Inspection Register; register Tagayarat-e-Kasht; register Intiqaalat/mutation register (Form XXXV); Roznamcha Waqiati (Daily Diary), to be maintained by the Patwari (Form XX); Roznamcha Hidayati (diary of instructions); Roznamcha Karguzari (performance diary); Roznamcha Partaal (inspection diary); Asamiwar Records (employment records); Dhal Bachh (demand) Malia (revenue) Mustaqil (permanent); Dhal Bachh Malia Ghair Mustaqil/demand for temporary revenue ; register of payments of copying fees; register of payments of mutation fees; miscellaneous records.
The original copy of the record-of-rights called 'Jama Bandi' or Register Haq Daran-e-Zameen and periodical records called 'Mis-e-Miyadi' with relevant supporting documents/ maps etc are consigned to the District Revenue Record Room. This practice is being carried out since the first settlement, making it possible to track the chain of title. A copy of the documents listed below, are also supplied to the union Committee, Town Committee or Union Council concerned:- (i) Register Haqdaran Zamin (ii) Register Girdawari (iii) Dhal Bachh (iv) Map of the estate.
When a mutation is decided by a Revenue Officer, a gist of the order is sent, in Form XVIII to the Secretary of the Union Committee, Town Committee or the Union Council, as the case may be, in which the estate is situated and to the person whose right has been transferred.
A village note book (Lal Kitab), prepared, for each estate, comprising the following statements- (i) Annual Area (ii) Annual Kharif Crop (iii) Annual Rabi Crop (iv) Annual Revenue Account (v) Annual Transfers of Land by Owners, etc (v-a) Annual Sales and Mortgages of Ownership by classes of land (vi) Quadrennial Abstract of Ownership and Mortgages (vii) Quadrennial Abstract of Cultivation by Owners and Tenants (viii) Quadrennial Abstract of Cash Rent paid by Tenants (ix) Quinquennial Return of Cattle, Carts, etc (x) Assessment.
A notebook comprising the statements mentioned above in a consolidated form is also maintained in respect of each Assessment Circle, Tehsil and District. Following forms are also used to capture precious data: requisition of information/ documents (Form XXX VII); holding slip (Form XXXVIII); interrogatory slip (Form XXXIX); warrant of transfer of holding (Form XLVI); warrant of attachment (Form XLVII); proclamation of sale (Form XLVIII); certificate of sale (Form XL1X); instrument of partition (Form L); register showing the amount of fee realised by Patwar for inspection of records and grant of certified copies therefrom (Form LI); register showing survey equipment's (Form LII); statement showing the condition of survey and boundary marks (Form LIV); list of mortgages with possession (Form LIX).
Following occurrences are also entered in the Roznamcha on the day on which they come to the Patwari's notice, and the manner in which they come to his knowledge: the ejectment, absconding, or settling of cultivators or right-holders, and the relinquishment, change or renewal of any tenure; the execution of any decree of Court affecting the land, its rent, or its produce; orders of Revenue Officers or Qanungos received by the Patwari or executed in the circle; attachment proceedings affecting the land, its cultivation, or its produce, or cattle; any encroachment on or damage to Nazul or Government Property or roads; any fact relating to land or its revenue or rent; any alteration in the ownership, cultivating possession or rent of land, which may have been recorded in the crop-inspection register; the receipt of any registration memos; the signature or thumb-impression of the headman or member of the Union Committee, Town Committee or Union Council concerned, obtained at the time of making entries, relating to changes in revenue records.
The maintenance of the record of rights is undertaken by revenue staff in the districts. There are 36 districts in Punjab. A district is divided into 3-5 Tehsils. There are 138 Tehsils in Punjab. The numbers of villages stand around 25,892 and those of urban centres approximately 219. About 8,000 Patwaris, besides supervisory and supporting staff, look after this record.
The record of rights is maintained by the Patwaris at the Patwar circle level. Changes in the recorded rights and interests (mutations/Intiqal) are managed at the Qanungo level, with the involvement of the Patwari, Girdawar and Naib Tehsildar (Revenue Officer). The senior Revenue staff at Tehsil and District level supervises the activity of these officials and, as part of the Revenue Court under the land laws, have original, appellate and revisional powers regarding orders made by the Revenue Officers.
The Sub-Registry maintains four sets of registers: Book 1, recording all dealings in immovable property; Book 2, recording all dealings that have been refused registration; Book 3, recording all wills, codicils and bequests; Book 4, recording powers of attorney and other miscellaneous documents.
Once the details have been entered into the book, the sub-registrar stamps the deed with an entry, recording a chronological number/year and the date of entry. This entry is certified. An index in each book lists the document number, nature of the document, place of the property, name of the property, property identifier (various alternatives including Khasra number, house number/ street number, PT-1 number etc), value, and stamp duty. The Sub-Registrar also maintains a register of thumbprints.
The information maintained by the sub-registrar includes description of property and maps or plans sufficient to identify the same; description of houses in towns as they are situated on the north or other side of the street or road, to which they front, and by their existing and former occupancies, and by their numbers if the houses in such street or road are numbered; description of houses and land by their name, if any, and as being in the territorial division in which they are situated, and by their superficial contents, the roads and other properties on which they abut, and their existing occupancies, and also whenever it is practicable, by reference to a Government map or survey; a true copy of map or plan of a property; information regarding personal appearance before the registration officer and verification of identity; record of the day, hour and place of presentation and the signature of every person presenting a document for registration, endorsed on every such document at the time of presentation; receipt for such document given by the registering officer to the person presenting the same and current indices of contents of above mentioned books. Each index may contain any prescribed information eg certificate of registration, signed, sealed and dated by the registering officer, containing the number and page of the book in which the document has been copied; a table of fees payable for various services like the registration of documents, for searching the registers, for making or granting copies of reasons, entries or documents, before, on or after registration, for every registration under Section 30 of the Registration Act 1908, for the issue of commission, for filing translations, for attending at private residences, and for the safe custody and return of documents etc.
The registration of dealings in immovable property under the Registration Act of 1908 is undertaken in the Sub-Registries at the Tehsil level and at town level; there are 9 towns in Lahore District and 52 independent sub-registries in the whole province. Elsewhere usually assistant commissioners perform duties of sub-registrars.
The previous sale deed is the preferred supporting document for a registration. If this is not available the Sub-Registrar will accept a fard provided by a Patwari, hopefully supported with a PT-1 extract, or alternatively a letter of allocation from a Development Authority such as the Lahore Development Authority, where applicable. In Lahore it is estimated that about half the applicants submitted previous sale deeds as supporting documents. According to a study values derived from the valuation books were 55-70% of the market values in main urban areas of Lahore. The books in some sub-registries in Lahore date back to the 1850's.
The major emphasis of the registration process is the identification of the parties. There is no investigation of the property, and no visit to the site. The Sub-Registrar will accept the declared sale price nominated by the parties, provided that the land value is in line with the values determined from valuation tables published by the District Collector.
There is considerable variety in the maintenance of records by the development authorities. Usually they provide allocation letters to property owners. These allocation letters are accepted as evidence of ownership. Residents in Development Authority areas have the option of registering the transaction in the Sub-Registry or with the Development Authority or both, if they want the extra security. In DHA, photographs and biometric thumb impression of the buyer and seller is also taken.
The Excise and Taxation Department (ETD) Punjab collects two property related taxes, a tax in rating areas (traditionally in urban areas, but extended to all Tehsils under section 117 of the Punjab Local Government Ordinance (PLGO) 2001) and a tax on residential and commercial property. These taxes are specified in the Punjab Urban Immovable Property Tax Act, 1958 and rules thereunder.
In each district there is a district officer excise and taxation. The district is divided into Rating Areas, which may be a Tehsil. There are 117 rating Areas in the Punjab. The Rating Areas are divided into a number of Zones; there are 12 Zones in Lahore. Zones are further divided into 2 to 3 Groups and Groups are divided into 4-5 Circles. There is a Deputy District Officer Excise & Taxation in each Rating Area. The DDO (E&T) is responsible for a number of staff in the Rating Area, including Excise & Taxation Officers. The number of staff in a Rating Area varies depending on workload and ranges from about 30 to over 900 in Lahore. The total number of staff in ETD in Punjab is around 3,200.
The ETD maintains two registers: the first book (PT-1) is the Property Tax Register that records properties in part of a Circle. The property numbers used relate back to the rating Circle and street address. An entry is maintained for every individual holding in property, with, for example, separate entries for individual offices in a building. The PT-1 records 18 sets of data for each property, including a sequential number in each book, the property reference number, the annual rental value, details for the owner, details for the occupant, if different, the number of stories and condition of the building etc. From 1 January 2002, ETD introduced a system of valuation tables that determines the annual rental value of a property based on valuation tables that determine annual rental value based on local coefficients for both land and built area. It is estimated that the annual rental values determined using the valuation tables are about 30% under the market prices. ETD has recorded about 1.3 million taxable properties.
The second register maintained by ETD is the PT-8, the Property Tax Demand Register. This book records the assessed annual property tax demand and payments made against the demand. It is estimated that about 75% of taxpayers pay the annual property tax demanded. Many others make partial payment.
ETD has mapping of the Rating Areas, Zones, Groups and Circles, but does not have tax mapping of the recorded properties. The number of recorded properties seems low and it is likely that many properties are not being recorded. Tax mapping would greatly assist in the identification of taxable property not presently recorded.
By the promulgation of PLGO, 2001, Union Councils are legally required to build a capacity for maintenance of a variety of record, including one pertaining to spatial planning. However, UCs maintain birth certificates, death certificates, municipal record, and a copy of Record of Rights.
Nadra deals mainly in issuance of Computerised National Identity Cards. It maintains a huge data mine of biometric/electronic thumb impressions, and photographs of every person holding an identity card. Its database can be linked to verify identity of a person through system of VERYSIS. By law, all citizens are required to obtain an Identity card. All manual identity cards have been cancelled in the country.
Discos of Wapda, and PTCL etc maintain a complete record of their clients. In fact, an electricity connection cannot be obtained without lawful poof of one's legitimate ownership or user rights like the renter of a property. Moreover, the Federal government is collecting some duties/taxes through the billing system of these utility services' providers.
After successful launching and operation of BADR series of experimental Low Earth Observational satellites (BADR-1 and BADR-B) in the 1990s and early 2000s, Suparco has plans to launch high resolution Pakistan Remote Sensing (Optical) Satellite (PRSS) towards the end of 2011 to meet the national and international user requirements in the field of satellite imagery.
The responsibility for topographic mapping and aerial photography lies with the Surveyor General of Pakistan (SGP). Established in 1947, the Survey of Pakistan (SOP) is based in Rawalpindi with a number of regional offices distributed at urban centers throughout Pakistan. All departments which require topographic maps make their request to SGP and many are permanently registered with it for mapping and aerial photographs procurement. Within the Survey of Pakistan, Directorate of Photogrammetry (Rawalpindi) is responsible for the commissioning and flying of aerial photography. SOP is holding precious data in its archives and is fully capable to undertake all types of surveys.
In short, there is sufficient expertise in the country in various types of surveys and mapping: cadastral (revenue departments), topographical (Survey of Pakistan), soil (Soil Survey of Pakistan), geological (Geological Survey of Pakistan), remote sensing/satellite (Suparco), land use (Pakistan Agriculture Research Council).
From the above mentioned, it is evident that information currently maintained by various agencies in the country is a precious gold mine and is more than sufficient to instantly create a title register that can be used to maintain a credible information regarding the title to a given property and its ownership, reliable enough for the government or private sector, through some sort of insurance arrangement, to provide guarantee to the title contained in the title register. In next articles, we will explore the modus operandi to materialise this and its impact on the prevalent security situation in the country and the opportunities it will create for the banking sector, which presently caters to merely less than 30 percent of the existing market. Our 'next economy' lies here!