Illegal dispossession and recovery of land in Pakistan 

Pakistan ranks at 116 out of 129 countries on the International Property Rights Index, which measures the strength of physical and intellectual property rights of different jurisdictions, and the legal-political environments in which they are enforced. This ranking comes as no surprise. 

It is well known that land rights in Pakistan are precarious, often lost or extinguished as well-hatched schemas of organized land-grabbers or qabza mafias played out through a system vulnerable to maneuvering and abuse. The script is often the same: manipulation of land revenue records; engineering of documents to set an alternative title; and litigation that locks the property in a dispute, often times for decades. Those more brazen outrightly occupy a property through force. Government functionaries are important players (facilitators) in this script. Land grabbers often operate under the protection of law enforcement agencies, and with the patronage of powerful, political forces. 

It is important to point out that individuals, unconnected to mafias, also take advantage of the system to dispossess property-holders. 

In Pakistan’s most populous province, Punjab, the government has, since the beginning of the year, been engaged in a land retrieval campaign to recover large swathes of land across the province. It has established an Anti-Land Mafia Cell and set up a dedicated “1242” helpline for complaints. Reports of the amount of land retrieved, and from whom (if they are to be believed), are shocking. Thousands of plots of land valuing billions of rupees have purportedly been recovered thus far, and in many cases from persons who have served as legislators or are connected to them. Earlier this year, interestingly the Police Elite Force came under the ire of the Lahore High Court for its illegal occupation of property owned by the Evacuee Trust Property Board. 

Footage of demolitions of huge structures, undertaken as part of this retrieval campaign, did the rounds on television screens and social media. Critics lambasted the measure as being politically motivated and raised much hue and cry. The government apparently complied with legal requirements of notice and hearing before tearing down the structures. 

Sahar Bandial

Footage of demolitions of huge structures, undertaken as part of this retrieval campaign, did the rounds on television screens and social media. Critics lambasted the measure as being politically motivated and raised much hue and cry. The government apparently complied with legal requirements of notice and hearing before tearing down the structures. 

The Central Government (Land and Buildings) Recovery of Possession Ordinance, 1965 empowers the federal government to recover vacant possession of and remove unauthorized occupants from land or buildings owned by the federal government. The Ordinance also authorizes demolition of structures and permits the use of necessary force. It mandates that a right to a hearing and notice are provided before retrieval is sought. Similar powers are granted to the Government of Punjab under the Punjab Government Lands and Buildings (Recovery of Possession) Ordinance, 1966. The West Pakistan Autonomous Bodies Immoveable Property Ordinance, 1965, and its provincial equivalents, grant similar powers of recovery and demolition to federal and provincial autonomous bodies with respect to land owned by them. 

Until 2005, private individuals illegally dispossessed of their properties had to take recourse to the civil courts to establish their right of ownership and possession, which given protracted procedures across court hierarchies, meant little timely relief. The provisions pertaining to criminal trespass under the Pakistan Penal Code have not reportedly been particularly helpful either.

The Illegal Dispossession Act, 2005 was enacted with the aim to provide private individuals with a more efficacious means of recovering their property from the “illegal and forcible dispossession ... by property grabbers,” without having to first establish right or title through lengthy civil proceedings. Under section 3 of the Act any person who without lawful authority dispossesses, grabs or occupies a property from its owners is punishable with imprisonment of 10 years and a fine. Affected parties can file complaint to the Sessions Court, which may direct a police officer to investigate the matter and submit a report within a specified time period. 

The scope of protection offered under the 2005 Act has remained subject to much confusion. The Supreme Court of Pakistan has moved from a restrictive interpretation of the Act as providing protection only against land mafias, and the concomitant need to demonstrate that the dispossession was part of an organized and calculated effort by persons with an established criminal history, to a more expansive approach that does not insist on the existence of a nexus with land grabbers to invoke protection of the Act. Judgments coming from the provincial high courts have not, however, uniformly followed the Supreme Court’s precedence. The courts have also moved back and forth on the impact of pendency of civil litigation regarding title to or right over a particular property on proceedings under the 2005 Act. 

The 2005 law, though commendable in the relief it sought to provide, is in obvious need of some clarity, for the benefit of the government’s land retrieval campaign. The campaign’s effectiveness will also depend on the extent to which it is willing to reign in miscreant elements within the government’s various agencies. 

*Sahar Zareen Bandial is an Advocate of the High Courts and a member of the Adjunct Faculty at the Shaikh Ahmad Hassan School of Law, LUMs. She has a keen interest in gender issues and has worked extensively in the area of legislative drafting.