Property registrations: Karachiites coerced into paying Rs 15 billion estimated annual bribe

The magnitude of corruption that has reached in 18 registrar offices of Karachi could be judged from unofficial reports that on each and every property registration the registrar has to be paid a bribe of Rs 20,000 to Rs 500,000 depending on the value of property.
Chairman, Transparency International Pakistan, Sohail Muzaffar in a letter sent to the Chief Secretary Sindh, Sajjad Saleem Hotiana has pointed out that normally in each district over one hundred properties are sold or purchased daily, and on an average bribe taken is Rs 30,000 per transition, daily.
Besides the registrar's bribe, the staff of the registrar's office also asks for Rs 1,000 to 2,000 at every step, ie filing of the property transfer application, giving the receipt, sending it to for microfilming, for search certificate, for urgent microfilming, etc which also is in billions of rupees. Article 19-A makes the right to access of information pertaining to a public authority a fundamental right and referred to Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah in his landmark judgement in Attaullah Malik v. Federation of Pakistan case as follows:
Right to information is another corrective tool which allows public access to the working and decision making of the public authorities. It opens the working of public administration to public scrutiny. This necessitates transparent and structured exercise of discretion by the public functionaries. Article 19 empowers the civil society of this country to seek information from public institutions and hold them answerable. PLD 2010 Lahore 605. "These accusations are very serious, and as the chief government officer of Sindh, you are duty bound to curb this illegal practice through which citizens of Karachi are being blackmailed to pay an estimated annual bribe of Rs 15 billion, and make accountable all registrars of Karachi under NAB Ordinance."
Sohail Muzaffar has proposed that at every registrar office, a member civil society or an officer of NAB shall be posted to observe and the registration process, so that no undue harassment is caused to property owners. The copies of the letter have been forwarded for information with the request to take action under their mandate to: Secretary to Prime Minister, Islamabad, Khurshid Shah, Leader of Opposition & Chairman, PAC, National Assembly, Islamabad, Chairman, NAB, Islamabad with the request to take action under NAO 1999, Section 9, Chief Minister, Sindh, Karachi, Registrar, Supreme Court of Pakistan, Islamabad, and Registrar, Sindh High Court, Karachi.