The Chief Justice (CJ) Lahore High Court (LHC) has directed the Chief Secretary Punjab to evolve a mechanism which could protect the ownership record of citizens and patwaris could not tamper the record. The CJ passed these orders after Lahore District Co-ordination Officer (DCO) here on Friday submitted a detailed report about the assets of tehsildars, naib tehsildars and patwaris of the district.
The CJ remarked that the patwaris have become symbol of corruption and nobody dared to lodge complaint against them and adjourned hearing in the case for two weeks. The DCO Ahad Cheema along with Punjab Chief Secretary Nasir Mehmood Khosa appeared before Chief Justice Ijaz Ahmad Chaudhry in a contempt court petition against a patwari for not issuing fard-e-malkiat (mutation deed) to a petitioner despite court order.
The patwaris altered property ownership record of the complainants, CJ pointed out and stressed upon the need of a system wherein patwaris could not blackmail innocent people.
The Chief Secretary assured the court that record of Punjab revenue department will be computerised saying presently the computerisation of the record was in progress in seven districts. He said computerisation of record will eliminate corruption in revenue department. DCO Cheema also informed the court that record of patwaris is being computerised. He ensured that action will be taken against corrupt patwaris.
The petitioner Khalid Saeed had submitted that on his petition a LHC bench had directed patwari of Kahna circle to issue him the fard-malkiat without any delay, but the patwari ignored the court orders. He also approached the DCO for the implementation of court orders but in vain. Petitioner sought contempt of court proceedings against the patwari and DCO for not complying with the court orders.