Digitalization of Property - A Revolutionary Step in Pakistan

Real Estate is on the verge of becoming the next big step in Pakistan as the government has launched a new gateway for the digitalization of property in Pakistan.

There are many aspects as to how this is supposed to be handled since for the majority of the years the property was managed and looked after through the patwari system.

So, what is the patwari System? and how the Government was inclined to abolish it yet not there are trying to utilize it? And do overseas Pakistanis have any benefit from this digitalization step? Here we explain:

Imran Khan had the agenda at the start of the government tenure on how to make use of the current power and change the property’s accountability system, by disallowing the patwaris to be the key player in all of this.

The PM held a meeting that discussed how the digitization of land was to be tackled therefore the legal status could be checked. The federal government has to complete this process, one of which is to ask all the provincial governments to provide the land records, however, the Sindh government was not able to provide such documents in due time as the sources said that the matter has to be brought up to the Cabinet.

The Requirement for Digitalization

According to Pakistan Property laws following documents are required for urban land record management:

• Property owner’s name
• Tehsil
• Taluka

The other benefits that would be in clear sight after the digitalization of property would be:

A system of software where updating land records, maps, land records, surveys, and several other properties will save time and attract investors.

The Title or ownership would be easier to identify and verify.

Methods of transfer and selling the property would be easy.

The lesser property disputes.

Is the Patwari System that Rigid?

Firstly, we have to know how the patwari system works, and how did it come to be in the first place? The Patwari System came into being from the 16th century onwards. The patwaris were the basic building block of the administration. At that time the record-keeping was done orally for the most part.

The Patwaris were the accountants of the village, and every village had one patwari. The Patwari system was the official way to account for the land, on crop rotation such that owners of the property could not escape the tax system.

They held all the records therefore they were able to buy and sell lands and had enough authority to report or block any purchase or selling of land at will. However, they were lower-ranking officers, ultimately being susceptible to bribery.

Digitalization - Where does it stand now?

The Patwari system is lagging in time. The need for the patwari system is seemingly irrelevant. The system being implemented will take time to digitalize the records whereas the patwari holds most of the records most of the old land that hasn’t been digitized.

In the beginning, PLRA has authorized two duties to patwaris that were considered most important and those were 'Fard' issuance and mutation. These authorities were delegated early on as the patwaris could still block the sale and purchase of land.

There were 18 different duties on Patwari which included 'Girdawari'. 'Fard' issuance and to handle certain litigations, cite marking, compiling land records to reporting small-scale clashes in the area.

What Should Overseas Pakistanis Expect

There has been an overgrowing concern on how this would affect the overseas Pakistanis when it comes to purchasing land through digital mediums.

The director of PLRA Nadia Ahmed clarified the land record centers are increasing, as of now the number boosted from 152 to 5000 for the current year. She further stated that 11 mission embassies were trained in four countries namely the USA, UK, UAE, and Saudi Arabia, and also their services will be launched there as well to facilitate the process for overseas Pakistanis.

She concluded:

“These services will be for overseas Pakistanis who will not have to come to Pakistan to get or change their land deeds and will be able to do their work online.”

The prime minister emphasized that there should be a central data bank be created at provincial levels besides the website, therefore the data and details of projects would then be available to Pakistanis especially the overseas Pakistanis.

Current Stage of Digitalization

In a meeting, the Prime Minister was briefed on the current progress of digitalization of property in Pakistan. He was briefed that all 36 districts of Punjab and Village maps ('masawis') were provided to the Survey General of Pakistan in due time. Along with this, tax data of 730,000 properties of Lahore was provided which included the properties of 'Auqaf' (Trust) as well.

As For Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the Chief Secretary told the meeting that all the data of the state lands for all the districts of the province has been provided to the survey general of Pakistan. The data from the province of Sindh was in the process to provide. Imran Khan claimed any sort of non-provision of data will strengthen the corrupt forces that have illegally occupied the state land.

Digitalization and Real Estate Industry:

The Chinese were quick to point out the missing gear in our efficiencies and monetary potential. The Digitalization of the Real estate sector was announced by FBR and following that was the Chinese proposed a plan to evaluate all the potential property wealth through geotagging technology in the Pakistan property market.

Through Geotagging, and the digital survey of properties it is expected that this process would be carried out in the next two years and it would help the FBR to evaluate the hidden potential of the real estate.

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Conclusion

The patwari system is outdated no doubt however it is the only longest-standing system that has held the property market for years. The question of whether to remove it completely or modify it will be stated to us when the time comes, but for now, FBR is making up with what it has at its disposal.

The Digitalization of property would shortly be considered a go-to means of verified documentation of property under the umbrella of officials in government. This would wipe out the corruption and bribery that lingers in the system.

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