Land mafia threatened MPA of removal and govt acted on it

ISLAMABAD: In August 2019, Prime Minister Imran Khan assigned a task to one of his MPAs from Rawalpindi, Chaudhry Muhammad Adnan. He was then Parliamentary Secretary (Revenue). Identification and recovery of grabbed state land was his task.

In November 2020, Adnan wrote to the PM saying the land mafia threatened him that he would be de-notified if he continued working against them. Before this letter, he had also informed the Punjab chief minister about this threat. In December 2020, just a month after his letter to the PM, the land mafia’s threat was translated into reality. Adnan’s revenue portfolio was de-notified.

What happened in-between is a history which spells out the power of the mafia in its pronounced form. While the land worth more than Rs325 billion which he identified remained in the possession of its grabbers, the officers who went after them were made a horrible example. They were transferred to far-flung areas.

This is despite the fact that the action was taken against the grabbers on the directions of the Chief Minister Office. Who from within the government acted on behalf of the mafia remained a mystery as fingers are pointed towards the influential members of the present administration.

Adnan mentioned in the letter addressed to PM that he identified “thousands of kanals of encroached state land worth around Rs325 billion in Mouza Kotha Kalan and Mouza Topi and benami properties in Rawalpindi.” The grabbers he exposed didn’t belong only to the opposition parties, PTI politicians were also included. One of them is also a member of Rawalpindi Development Authority from where NoCs were issued on the basis of forged records.

He named all of them and shared revenue records to prove that it was the state land under their occupation. While action was taken to some extent against a PML-N senator, those affiliated with PTI were left untouched.

Right in the middle of his letter to the PM, Adnan mentions the power of the mafia. “The land mafia is so strong that whoever takes action against them gets transferred such as an operation to retrieve state land in Mouza Kotha Kalan was carried out on 05-June-2020 after the FIRs were lodged against illegal encroachers… the next day they again illegally encroached the state land and the Deputy Commissioner Rawalpindi, ADC (R) Rawalpindi, Assistant Commissioner (Saddar) and Tehsildar Rawalpindi got transferred.”

Another failed attempt to vacate the encroached land was also pointed out in the letter. In August 2020, the Senior Member Board of Revenue (SMBR) ordered the retrieval of all those state lands which were mentioned in Adnan’s letter to the SMBR. No action was taken; instead, the tehsildar who prepared all the reports of encroachments on state land got transferred. He also reminded the PM why the bureaucracy is hesitant to translate his (PM) orders into actions.

In the meeting of Good Governance Council Punjab held three days after SMBR’s order fell flat, the PM reiterated his order for the recovery of encroached land “without taking any pressure” but no department took any action. Why? Adnan explained to PM in his letter: “If someone takes action against the land mafia, they take relief from courts therefore laws should be made so that land mafia would not be able to take relief from the courts for encroaching/ selling state land.”

He shared the list of encroached land and illegalities of the housing societies alongside the motorway and Chakri Road Rawalpindi but, he wrote in the latter, no action was taken. Instead, he received threats from the land mafia about which he informed the chief minister of Punjab. To the CM, he also informed that the mafia had warned him that his revenue portfolio would be de-notified if he continued exposing them.

If the land mafia is so strong that nobody can take action against them, then Adnan suggested to the PM in the letter that he was ready to tender resignation from the post of parliamentary secretary (revenue). While no action was taken against the mafia, Adnan’ last prayer was answered. The CM de-notified him from the revenue office, something he had shared with him as a warning from the mafia.