KARACHI: Round 4.30pm on Feb 25 final yr, an altercation passed off between two teams of individuals on Mai Kolachi Street, close to the US consulate. Whereas the small print of the brawl itself are unclear, the bone of rivalry was allegedly a three-acre chunk of prime actual property positioned simply off the thoroughfare. One in all its two co-owners, builder and developer Javed Iqbal had employed an area JUI-F chief named Jibrail Khan, 32, to work there as a supervisor. A number of sources declare that the large plot is coveted by extraordinarily highly effective people on the high of the political meals chain.
Some days earlier, this get together had despatched of their supporters to occupy the plot. On Feb 25, Jibrail received right into a heated confrontation with them. An FIR was filed towards him for rioting armed with a lethal weapon, kidnapping and tried homicide. A number of different FIRs (copies of that are in Daybreak’s possession) had been additionally filed towards him in Karachi and different elements of Sindh, together with Shikarpur, Moro, Qazi Ahmed and Nawabshah for numerous crimes, ostensibly dedicated throughout the span of some weeks, together with theft of cattle, money and a bike. He was arrested, taken to Central Jail and some weeks later, transferred to jail in Nawabshah.
In accordance with a person near Jibrail, who initially hails from KP, “He’s by no means been wherever in Sindh apart from Karachi”. Even after he was acquitted by a Shaheed Benazirabad courtroom, with the judicial Justice of the Peace in his order saying there had been an abuse of energy and that Jibrail had been falsely implicated, he continued to be detained in the identical jail.
The plot’s co-owner, Mr Iqbal, alleges {that a} faux FIR was filed towards him as effectively and he was detained by the Counter Terrorism Division police for 4 days, throughout which, he says, he was ordered to give up the plot in writing. He refused; in the end, he obtained aid from the Sindh Excessive Court docket.
Political huge weapons quickly turned concerned. Rashid Mehmood Soomro, secretary normal of JUI-F Sindh, issued a strongly worded statement on social media in Jibrail’s defence, describing the dispute as one in reference to a plot which “two huge crocodiles are speeding to seize”. He denounced considered one of them as “somebody who maybe believes he owns Sindh, owns the nation, and thinks he can use brute power to seize land…”; he warned that if the matter was not resolved shortly, Sindh would go up in flames.
That is the tip of the iceberg that illustrates the lawlessness prevailing in Sindh, the place a complete system allegedly operates free from the constraints of the legislation and institutional guardrails, beholden solely to its political masters and their whims, and present solely to rake in eyewatering fortunes for everybody concerned.
Whereas the sources of this wealth are many and different, Karachi’s treasured actual property is the reward that retains on giving, and it’s the focus of this report. Sources throughout the political management, paperwork and civil society communicate of a metropolis divided up into zones, with a trusted entrance man (generally a number of) presiding over receipts from every space underneath his management. Amongst these are a seasoned medical skilled, a civil servant lively in brokering land offers, a enterprise group that allegedly handles all of the ‘earnings’ generated within the province, and so on.
Given the heft of the personalities concerned, most sources had been unwilling to talk on the document, however there’s enough documentary proof and on-ground reporting by Daybreak to assist their statements. Sure names have been modified to guard the people’ id. With the legislation having been weaponised to silence the media, drawing too clear an image will be fraught with threat, so readers are invited to attach the dots the place potential.
King of the West?
In a rustic the place political fortunes can undergo cycles of increase and bust, Ali Hassan Brohi — also referred to as Ali Hassan Zehri due to his Baloch tribal ancestry — has suffered a setback of kinds. On Feb 3, he tendered his resignation from the Balochistan cupboard. However, given his highly effective connections, this can be solely a bump within the highway.
There was a time he was mentioned to be on the run and allegedly within the crosshairs of the ‘encounter specialist’ — Rao Anwar, then SSP Malir. Quick ahead to December 2024, he was sworn in as Balochistan’s minister for agriculture and cooperatives. His current setbacks in that province however, he’s arguably one of the highly effective individuals in Sindh, rumoured to have the ear of at least the president himself.
Hailing from Bandhi, Nawabshah district (since renamed Shaheed Benazirabad), he was as soon as, as a distinguished politician informed Daybreak, within the make use of of an octroi tax collector in Bolari, district Jamshoro.
“He wasn’t even a supervisor, however a helper. Nevertheless, in accordance with the contractor, he was extraordinarily sharp.” Exhibiting a political savvy that was to face him in good stead, Mr Brohi developed contacts with low-level PPP employees and over time, with senior get together leaders in Nawabshah. With the assistance of his connections, alleges the politician, Mr Brohi step by step labored his method out of small-town Sindh to offering muscle for the PPP in reference to Karachi’s dear actual property — however then, there was a falling out.
A number of sources confirmed to Daybreak that Mr Brohi made a run for Balochistan; police near the Sindh-Balochistan border had obtained orders from SSP Rao to ‘intercept’ him, and so they fired upon his car within the Mochko space, however he made it throughout. There he sought shelter with sure political and tribal heavyweights, two of whom are mentioned to have paved the way in which for his rapprochement together with his former benefactor a number of years later once they joined the PPP.
Till then, although, Mr Brohi’s travails had been removed from over. On Could 20, 2020, English and Urdu newspapers carried a public discover by the deputy commissioner, district West (the DC workplace is probably the most senior within the district income division). The discover declared Mr Brohi “an especially infamous particular person” and claimed he had grabbed over 3,000 acres of state and personal land price billions of rupees. It learn: “For his immense crimes of forgery and land grabs, Ali Hassan Brohi is underneath a complete and neutral inquiry by this workplace. A major variety of faux entries managed by Ali Hassan Brohi within the income document of district West have been discovered, which can be conveyed to increased authorities with suggestions for cancellation and penal motion after completion of scrutiny.” The discover requested for public help in gathering additional info.
On the orders of Owais Muzaffar Tappi who was believed to run the system on the time, the then DC West Fayyaz Solangi retrieved the lands that Mr Brohi had allegedly grabbed. Nevertheless, as this story will later present, Mr Solangi would come to remorse following these orders so faithfully.
In 2021, FIA’s company crime circle, Karachi workplace, instituted an enquiry primarily based on what it claimed was a reference from the DIG CTD, Sindh, during which Mr Brohi and eight others had been named on the premise of an FIR (no 811/2021) filed in Karachi. Briefly, the FIR accused Mr Brohi of getting taken Rs20 million from drug sellers to bribe two policemen with Rs7m to get two of his alleged entrance males to spring three Nigerian nationals from custody. In accordance with the FIA’s transient, subsequent enquiries delivered to gentle 14 FIRs courting from 2007 until 2020, during which Mr Brohi is called because the accused in eight, whereas the remaining nominate two different people described as his “entrance males”.
The fees towards him embrace terrorism, homicide, tried homicide, rioting armed with a lethal weapon, dacoity, inflicting damage and prison intimidation, amongst others. The doc additionally names 9 “entrance males” of Mr Brohi in whose identify the latter had “acquired/ bought numerous properties in numerous areas” of Karachi. These findings, in accordance with the transient, are primarily based on solely a partial document, a few of it obtained from the digitised data compiled by the Land Income Administration Info Programs (LARMIS), Board of Income (BoR), Sindh. Mr Brohi didn’t reply to questions put to him in writing by Daybreak concerning these allegations and different claims about him by sources quoted on this report.
(Of the eight FIRs during which Mr Brohi is nominated as the only real accused, police sources contacted by Daybreak had been capable of verify three FIRs from their document, plus two extra registered in 2021 that aren’t listed within the FIA transient.)
In conclusion, the transient says that in December 2021, the enquiry was transferred to FIA headquarters in Islamabad. The story of that switch is revealing in its brazen battle of curiosity.
In March 2021, Mr Brohi’s spouse, Samina Mumtaz Zehri was elected to the Senate on a reserved girls’s seat. In accordance with a senior political chief, her election was managed by former ISI chief Faiz Hameed, who had her vote shifted to Hub from Karachi and offered her as a Senate candidate from the Balochistan Awami Occasion. (The BAP is well-known to have the navy institution’s backing.) After her election, Ms Zehri turned a member of the standing committee on inside. At its assembly on Oct 22, 2021, the minutes of that are in Daybreak’s possession, the members made a number of suggestions. One in all these reads: “Senators Rana Maqbool Ahmed, Azam Nazir Tarar and Muhammad Talha Mahmood had been of the thought of opinion that Dr Farooq, deputy director of FIA, Karachi has now turn into a controversial officer and the case pointed by Senator Samina Mumtaz Zehri ought to be transferred to Islamabad and interrogated…” The case in query was the FIA’s inquiry into Ms Zehri’s personal husband.
As per its letter dated Dec 27, 2021 acknowledging the standing committee’s resolution, the DG FIA’s Islamabad workplace directed that the enquiry report be submitted for perusal to the DG, FIA inside a fortnight. The DG FIA didn’t reply to repeated requests in writing from Daybreak as to the destiny of the enquiry.
On Nov 4, 2024, Senior Vice President of the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce & Business Saquib Fayyaz Magoon wrote to Chief Secretary Sindh Asif Hyder Shah a few grievance forwarded to him by President, Karachi Chamber of Commerce & Industries Jawed Bilwani. The grievance, by businessman Shoaib Razzak Makkad and in addition dated Nov 4, 2024, was enclosed with the letter to the chief secretary.
Mr Makkad in his grievance acknowledged that he was a associate in Salina Worldwide, a salt manufacturing enterprise. In accordance with him, he was “in possession of land measuring 54.3 acres since 2019” in Mauripur, district Keamari. “…[O]n June 28, 2024, Tapedar … and Tapedar …, notable entrance males of Ali Hassan Brohi, with some unknown individuals got here with heavy weapons and … encroached on the complete land. They’re nonetheless at the moment residing [there] with heavy weapons.”
A senior authorities officer informed Daybreak, “In districts West and Keamari, with out Ali Hassan’s NOC, neither DC, nor SSP, nor mukhtiarkar, nor some ACs — similar to of Manghopir and Mauripur — will be appointed.” This view was corroborated by sources within the police, paperwork, enterprise sector and PPP itself. A seasoned bureaucrat mentioned that even after lease papers for a selected housing society in district West had been signed, “the AC and mukhtiarkar wouldn’t make an entry of their mutation registers as a result of they don’t do something except particularly ordered by Ali Hassan.”
(A mukhtiarkar is a BoR official slightly below the assistant commissioner, liable for processing and issuing paperwork associated to land income, which makes this an especially highly effective publish.)
This isn’t to counsel that Mr Brohi is the one one whose identify crops up in context of allegedly questionable land dealings. Nevertheless, given his political profile, he’s arguably probably the most distinguished amongst these people.
Soiled enterprise
Earlier than transferring on to the opposite actors within the sordid saga of land grabbing in Karachi, a quick observe on how land possession is created adopted by some situations of shady actual property dealings that Daybreak has uncovered.
The Board of Income, Sindh is unique custodian of all of the land within the province. Except for income assortment and sustaining land data in Sindh, BoR allots land to people, societies and numerous establishments and growth authorities similar to Karachi Growth Authority (KDA), Lyari Growth Authority (LDA), Defence Housing Authority, and so on to develop schemes for particular functions.
Related income officers ‘survey’ an space of state land and divide it into blocks with every given a novel identifier referred to as a “survey quantity”. The surveyed land can then be allotted in accordance with a process specified underneath the Sindh Colonisation and Disposal of Authorities Land Guidelines, 2005. Unsurveyed land is termed ‘na class’ land, which belongs to the unique proprietor, the state, which holds it in belief for the general public. Na class or unsurveyed land is distinguished on BoR maps by a unique color and completely different sequence of numbers than surveyed land.
However proof that guidelines of process are being violated with breathtaking impunity — and with full data of the authorities — lies scattered all throughout Karachi. Districts West (notably in Halkani, Bund Murad and Jam Chakro), Keamari (which was carved out of the unique district West in 2020), East and Malir have turn into more and more engaging for builders. “To make a undertaking viable inside town is kind of troublesome as a result of you possibly can’t discover huge chunks of land there, and no matter land that does exist there’s costly,” says Hamid Khan* of the Affiliation of Builders and Builders of Pakistan (ABAD). “That’s why builders are inclined to deal with the suburbs.”
Little doubt there are numerous examples of unlawful land use inside Karachi correct, together with encroachment on amenity plots, by parts linked with all political events — PPP, MQM and ANP (in the course of the latter two’s heyday within the metropolis), and even by the proscribed Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan for a interval. For causes of area, nonetheless, this report focuses on Karachi’s outlying areas and encroachments inside current years.
Daybreak Investigations visited a number of websites in district West, in addition to the large growth scheme generally known as Hawkesbay Scheme 42 in district Keamari. The place till some years in the past there have been huge stretches of empty land dotted with goths (rural settlements), dozens of gated housing schemes at the moment are arising, many boasting little greater than an entrance, a boundary wall and a reserving workplace the place doubtful claims in regards to the builders’ title to land are made.
Take Al-Jannat Metropolis by MAA Building & Builders Pvt Ltd in deh Halkani, for instance. Mohammed Aqeel within the reserving workplace informs the Daybreak correspondent, who approaches him as a potential investor, that there are 575 residential plots of 120 sq yards every obtainable right here, and quite a few business plots. The proposed format plan displayed within the reserving workplace exhibits the undertaking as being unfold throughout 32.8 acres on survey numbers 57, 58, 59 and 61. The salesperson says six households are already residing within the society whereas round 20 homes are underneath building. Residential plots value between Rs3 to three.5 million, with all gross sales last. Calculated at Rs3.3m every, the residential plots alone add as much as a minimum of Rs1.84 billion.
“For those who delay shopping for for a month, the worth may cross 4 million rupees,” cautions Mr Aqeel. “Building has been choosing up tempo right here and there’s no different leased undertaking nearing completion within the space.” He provides: “Now we have been issuing sub-leases to homeowners of the plots.” The query is: how is that potential when the land on which Al-Jannat Metropolis is arising doesn’t even belong to the builder?
Mr Aqeel claims LDA has leased the land to the builders, however tellingly, he refuses to point out the lease. “Not till you buy a plot,” he says firmly. (Deh Halkani is an element of what’s generally known as Scheme 43, which the BoR has given solely as a ‘managed’ space to LDA. The Authority itself has no lease for it.)
To delve deeper into the builder’s claims, Daybreak GIS division referred to the digitised knowledge in LARMIS. The apex courtroom in 2012 banned the mutation of public land in Sindh, however in 2019, it partially lifted the ban in areas the place the land document had been digitised. Thus, one can moderately assume that the LARMIS knowledge, the place it exists, is updated.
It seems that survey numbers 57, 58, 59 and 61 truly lie on the opposite aspect of the highway from the place Al-Jannat Metropolis is arising. The undertaking is positioned on what’s solely state land. Apparently, taken collectively, these survey numbers nearly mirror the scale of the undertaking itself.
A brief drive away on the principle highway is Alvisha Housing Society by the identical builder, positioned reverse the Ijtema Gah the place a mammoth non secular congregation gathers yearly. The salesperson on the undertaking workplace tells the correspondent that 120- and 160-sq yard residential and 200 sq yard business plots can be found on the market in blocks A, B and C. In block C, a 120 sq yard plot prices Rs2.8m lump sum, and Rs3.6m on a 42-month installment plan.
When requested about official approvals, one of many two males current says that in the interim, the plots in block A, the place the workplace is positioned, are being provided on sale to “those that place confidence in the builder” and to not most people. When requested why that’s so, he admits that the “paperwork for block A just isn’t 100 per cent full, in contrast to blocks B and C.”
He lays out the society’s proposed format plan on the desk; it lists the survey numbers (86, 87, 88 and 89) on which it’s being constructed. Frontline Advertising and marketing, which is dealing with the undertaking, shares with Daybreak an NOC issued by LDA which additionally mentions the identical survey numbers, 86 to 89.
Nevertheless, Daybreak’s GIS division has decided that these survey numbers lie fairly a ways away, within the route the place the lads within the gross sales workplace vaguely indicated that blocks B and C will come up. Furthermore, Alvisha’s block A is definitely located on survey numbers 96 and 97. It’s not identified what’s the purpose for this discrepancy.
However income officers inform Daybreak this sort of discrepancy is quite common. One explains it thus: “Generally there are different claimants to the land; generally builders will use possession of 1 piece of survey land to falsely declare possession over different surveyed land, and even over unsurveyed land; one other ploy is to get a faux allotment of unsurveyed land and, after possession, go to the income division for a survey quantity.”
Daybreak’s letter to MAA Building & Builders Pvt Ltd was returned. One other letter with inquiries to Frontline Advertising and marketing obtained no response both.
With round 60 tasks in Karachi, GFS Builders & Builders is among the huge gamers in Pakistan’s actual property market. Supported by a slick advertising and marketing marketing campaign, its quite a few smooth-talking salespersons push low cost provides, and district West is dotted with quite a few their tasks. A better take a look at North City Residency Section-2 exposes some surprising info.
In accordance with an ‘NOC’ on the market and commercial of plots in NTR part 2 issued by the Sindh Constructing Management Affiliation, the undertaking measures 30 acres on land bearing survey numbers 363 to 367 “out of na class no 294 in deh Halkani”. The BoR map submitted to the Supreme Court docket in 2013 clearly exhibits this complete space — which falls partly in deh Halkani and partly in deh Bund Murad — as being na class (or unsurveyed/state land). The LARMIS web site presently exhibits the identical state of affairs in deh Halkani. The map for deh Bund Murad is lacking. Daybreak obtained no response to questions it despatched in writing to the GFS CEO.
(Daybreak repeatedly contacted the DC West; Senior Member Board of Income, Sindh with a cc to the Chief Secretary, Sindh; Member, Land Utilisation, BoR; and Venture Director, LARMIS to ask in regards to the provenance of the survey numbers in reference to the aforementioned housing tasks. There was no response from any of them apart from LARMIS Assistant Director, Coordination, Hafeezullah Abbasi. Mr Abbasi knowledgeable Daybreak over the cellphone that LARMIS doesn’t possess the information in query. “We are able to solely digitise the information that we’ve got been offered.”)
Filthy wealthy
Apparently, the above-mentioned na class quantity — no 294 — from which piece of land GFS representatives declare that survey numbers 363 to 367 have been carved out for its North City Residency-Section 2, crops up in a grievance to NAB about big tracts of land being illegally taken over and bought. A listing of suspicious gross sales/allotments was enclosed with the grievance, mentioning the survey/na class numbers, space and worth, and ‘sellers’ and ‘purchasers’ of the land in query. In accordance with this, 82 acres on na class numbers 284 – 294 had been illegally bought/allotted to GFS.
The doubtful transactions listed within the grievance to NAB contain almost 1,500 acres, together with round 1,150 acres of state land. On Oct 11, 2023, NAB wrote to DC West informing him in regards to the grievance it had obtained concerning “unlawful sale/ allotment of presidency land”, and asking him to furnish NAB with a complete report by Oct 23, 2023.
Repeated makes an attempt to hunt NAB’s official response to this grievance went unanswered. Sources informed Daybreak that NAB had initiated a proper enquiry primarily based on the allegations on this grievance, however lately, 166 circumstances, enquiries, references and complaints referring to the departments of income, native authorities and meals had been transferred to Sindh’s Anti-Corruption Institution.
The record enclosed with the grievance to NAB lays naked how predatory networks have hollowed out governance in Sindh — like locusts stripping naked each area they descend upon. Those that acquired the land allegedly by unlawful sale/allotment embrace quite a few well-known builders and builders. And amongst these accused of supplying them the land — the ‘sellers’ — are Ali Hassan Brohi, an SHO and a mukhtiarkar.
The cop is Ghulam Hussain Korai, then SHO Manghopir in district West. Take into account simply one of many parcels of land that he, collectively with one Yousuf Brohi, is accused of grabbing: 200 acres of state land in deh Bund Murad which was, as per this doc, price an eye-watering Rs4 bn.
An SHO generally is a grade 14 (sub-inspector) or grade 16 (inspector) officer, whose month-to-month wage is on the most Rs120,000. In December 2024, after complaints by quite a few businessmen about brazen land grabbing in Karachi turned too vociferous to disregard, the powers that be ordered the Sindh authorities to handle the difficulty.
Inspector Korai was amongst 5 cops who had been subsequently transferred to desk jobs on the police headquarters. (Plenty of income officers had been additionally transferred, although usually changed, say sources, with others of equally sick reputation however boasting sturdy ties with those that matter within the provincial management.)
In response to Daybreak’s questions, Inspector Korai described the allegations towards him as “false, fabricated, and baseless … the [Association of Builders & Developers] have withdrawn their software, and the difficulty has been resolved accordingly.” He enclosed a letter from ABAD together with his response. An excerpt from it reads: “… as a result of unavoidable circumstances the complainant presently displaying a scarcity of coordination with ABAD concerning their submitted complaints … We hereby request to withdraw the grievance towards him.” Daybreak was unable to substantiate the character of the “unavoidable circumstances”. Mr Korai stays with none posting. Sources say he has been sanctioned a number of occasions for misconduct.
There may be on the identical record one Ejaz, described as mukhtiarkar Scheme 33, who’s alleged to have handed over in a fraudulent method seven acres in Scheme 33 itself to an undisclosed builder and developer. This seems to be a reference to Aijazul Hassan Khan. By the way, Mr Aijaz was amongst 11 mukhtiarkars suspended in 2023 for land fraud.
It’s troublesome to overstate the merciless irony on this state of affairs. Whereas public land will get siphoned away by unscrupulous builders hand in glove with rapacious parts from the ruling elite and corrupt authorities officers, reasonably priced public sector housing schemes nearly by no means transcend the blueprint.
Hawkesbay Scheme 42, Karachi’s oldest public sector undertaking, is a stark instance. This scheme was began in 1984 for the low- and middle-income section by KDA and transferred to LDA in 1996. Over 4 many years later, a lot of it’s nonetheless undeveloped and with out electrical energy or water. Many unique allottees remained unable throughout their lifetime to take possession of their plots, which that they had paid for with their hard-earned cash.
Scheme 42 even features a block solely for abroad Pakistanis, however they too don’t have anything to point out for his or her funding until at the moment. And but, these with no proper to the land however loads of clout have staked their declare to the abroad block by constructing a boundary wall round its perimeter, repeatedly. Every time the wall is bulldozed by the authorities, it comes up once more inside no time.
An unlawful housing society referred to as Aashqan-e-Mustafa has materialised alongside the Suparco Street which cuts by Scheme 42. Two entrance males of an MPA are mentioned to be dealing with transactions.
When a Daybreak Investigations staff visits, a person strolls up, asking if they’re taken with a plot and if that’s the case, to take their queries to Madina Actual Property close by. There are 100- or 120-square yard plots obtainable on the market right here, says the realtor: “a 400-sq yard business plot alongside the principle highway prices Rs6.5m with money fee over three months.” When requested whether or not the society has a lease from the event authority, he replies: “No, it’s not leased however that is a part of the Gothabad Scheme, so that you’ll get a sanad for those who purchase right here.” This implies the federal government had notified this piece of state land for a goth located right here — ostensibly on this case, Kachelo Goth. Nevertheless, sanads can solely be issued to the unique residents of a goth. By the way, Kachelo Goth truly lies round 2km away.
Predictably, the Gothabad Scheme over time has turn into one other car for corruption because it started in 1987 to supply housing to the deserving indigenous inhabitants in rural Sindh. Gothabad mukhiarkars started issuing faux sanads, even a number of sanads to at least one particular person to allow the latter to assert title over a big space.
Mohammed Shahnawaz on the Aashqan-e-Mustafa housing society web site workplace in actual fact claimed that consumers could be given backdated sanads as a result of “sanads stopped being issued after 2012”. Daybreak obtained no response to questions addressed in writing to the proprietors of Aashqan-e-Mustafa.
In June 2014, throughout Supreme Court docket hearings into the Karachi unrest case, BoR submitted a report stating that 59,803 acres of state land had been encroached upon. Backroom land offers are usually not mere irregularities — they’re a basic breach of public belief. State land just isn’t for the federal government to bestow upon whomever it favours, which is why a current Sindh Excessive Court docket judgement underscored that, within the curiosity of transparency, state land should be disposed of by an open public sale.
Pretend NOCs, no paper path
All of the housing societies investigated for this report occur to fall underneath LDA. Ahmed Saeed*, who could be very conversant in the LDA’s workings, reveals that the Authority has in umpteen situations confirmed ‘na class’ land (ie unsurveyed land which can’t be allotted to anybody and on which no undertaking will be constructed) as survey land. He alleges that everybody, together with BoR, is get together to the fraud.
In accordance with him, the landgrabber writes to the Director Basic LDA to request an NOC for the format plan on what they declare is their land. The DG sends the letter to the related DC, asking for clarification on the standing of the land in query. The DC forwards it to the mukhtiarkar who takes out a report which then goes again to the DC, who forwards it to the DG confirming the land does certainly belong to the get together.
“The official charge for approval of the format plan is Rs1.3m per acre, and the bribe for exhibiting na class land as survey land is Rs500,000 per acre,” says Mr Saeed. “However as a result of the letters have been despatched round by hand, not by a dispatcher, there’s no path. LDA will say they did this on BoR’s say-so; for those who ask BoR for verification, they’ll say that is state land and so they by no means gave approval for it. You present them the correspondence — and so they’ll say it’s faux, however all of them know. They’re all concerned.” In different phrases, basic smoke and mirrors.
At his workplace, a fairly harried-looking DG LDA Safdar Bughio, tells Daybreak: “Our planning division verifies possession by the involved DC workplace; it’s BoR that checks whether or not the builder has possession or not. Once they verify possession title, then our planning division does the technical work on it [to issue NOC for layout plan].”
LDA planning division head, Mohammed Arbab, toes an identical line: “Our mandate and performance is the KBTPR [Karachi Building and Town Planning Rules]. We’re solely a city planning company. The identification of the land is completed by the DC, title verification is completed by the DC, document of survey numbers is with the DC.”
Nevertheless, Mr Bughio concedes there are some unlawful housing societies. “It is usually our duty to cease them. We do cease them, however formally we deal solely with those that come for [layout plan] NOCs from us. However positively I’ll quickly begin a programme during which we are going to tackle the duty of coping with them.”
As for Mr Arbab, when pressed additional on the difficulty, he says: “Qabzay bhi wohi log kartay hain … na class land pay jin kay hukoomati hyperlinks hotay hain.” (Encroachment on state land is completed by those that have authorities connections.)
Different cogs within the wheel
There are nonetheless some public servants who attempt to discharge their obligation with a minimum of a level of integrity. In situations the place the mukhtiarkar involved takes motion and points a discover to a suspected land grabber, the latter can method the anti-encroachment tribunal. The Sindh Public Property (Removing of Encroachment) Act, 2010, empowers anti-encroachment tribunals headed by a retired district and classes decide or an advocate of 10 years’ standing to find out the rights of the events concerned.
Too usually, although, the one anti-encroachment tribunal in Karachi has given questionable selections. In actual fact, a number of sources informed Daybreak that encroachers go to the tribunal with faux/ solid paperwork to ascertain title to the land they’ve grabbed by acquiring a keep order. “It’s easy,” says Umair Rafiq*, a senior bureaucrat. “Go meet the courtroom reader, file an software shortly and get a keep. Then anybody who visits that land turns into responsible of contempt. You simply pay one or two million rupees for this.”
Daybreak has in its possession the copy of an order in swimsuit no 15/ 2024, issued on July 23, 2024, by Muneer Bhutto, district and classes decide and, till lately, presiding officer of the anti-encroachment tribunal. The plaintiff is Al-Faiz Builders Pvt Ltd whereas the defendants embrace officers from BoR, SBCA, LDA, anti-encroachment police personnel, and so on.
In his interim order, the presiding provide restrained “the defendants, their brokers and anybody on their behalf from eject[ting], evict[ing], dispossess[ing] the plaintiff from the swimsuit property ie 32 acres land na class No 42 located at Deh Methan, tapo Manghopir, district Keamari”.
Apparently, the identical presiding officer (now heading the Karachi Water & Sewerage Tribunal) was the main target of a grievance made earlier that yr. In a letter dated Jan 30, 2024, a duplicate of which is offered with Daybreak, the DC East wrote to the Sindh Excessive Court docket Registrar, the Member Inspection Group-II (a physique that handles complaints towards judicial officers within the district and decrease courts), requesting additional motion on a grievance towards Mr Bhutto that had been forwarded to him by the assistant commissioner East. Along with his letter, he enclosed a report submitted by a mukhtiarkar of Karachi East, Muhammad Irfan Lashari.
Mr Lashari in his grievance alleged that the presiding officer had granted a keep to land grabbers on 500 sq yards of state land at Fateh Mohammed Gabol Goth that had been reserved by the Sindh authorities for a dispensary for the native residents. In actual fact, he mentioned in his report, possession had already been given to the well being division consultant with documentation to the impact. In accordance with him, by the keep order, a contempt of courtroom discover towards him and letter of suspension, he was “pressurised to comply with the illegal order handed by the presiding officer of the tribunal. … The keep orders … not solely present cowl to the land grabbers but in addition encourage them to usurp extra state land in connivance with assist of presiding officer of the mentioned tribunal and his employees…”
Nothing got here of this grievance. In actual fact, sources mentioned {that a} “faux case” had been filed towards the DC involved, his properties had been connected and he was declared an absconder.
(On Oct 15, 2025, in a growth unrelated to Mr Lashari’s grievance, Muneer Bhutto was discovered responsible of misconduct after an enquiry by MIT member Justice Muhammad Faisal Kamal Alam of the Sindh Excessive Court docket that started in 2021. Concluding that Mr Bhutto had “misused” his “senior official place”, the MIT imposed on him “the minor penalty of withholding of annual increment for a interval of three years”.)
Regardless of repeated makes an attempt, Mr Bhutto refused to obtain Daybreak’s letter with questions concerning the above allegations.
Nothing oils the wheels of elite seize like a corrupt paperwork. Seasoned bureaucrats maintain that officers had been typically appointed on advantage in Benazir Bhutto’s time, however this modified after her assassination in December 2007. “As quickly as PPP’s victory within the 2008 election appeared assured, officers started to get calls from the PPP management telling them to chorus from recruitment and from making any appointments,” says Rashid Saleem*, a retired assistant commissioner. “As quickly as they got here in, they started to recruit their very own individuals.”
The passage of the 18th Modification, say old-school bureaucrats, eliminated the guardrails solely. “The 2012 recruits had been quickly promoted and at the moment are in grade 19. Quickly they’ll be in grade 20, secretary stage. God assist Sindh when that occurs,” says Mr Saleem.
In accordance with a number of senior civil servants, the Sindh Public Service Fee’s (SPSC) examination course of has turn into critically compromised, with ‘favoured’ candidates awarded inflated scores within the oral section whereas deserving candidates are failed regardless of sturdy written performances. Every recruitment, appointment and promotion has a value, they declare.
Journalist Imdad Soomro has extensively investigated corruption within the SPSC. “To get recruited right into a division, one has to pay between Rs5m to Rs10m,” he alleges. On the different finish of the spectrum are the highest posts, similar to assistant commissioner, excise and taxation officer, DSP, mukhtiarkar, and so on for which candidates should sit the Mixed Aggressive Examination or CCE. The ‘charges’ are increased for such “kamanay walay [lucrative] posts” as Mr Soomro places it. In accordance with him, to turn into AC or ETO, one should pay Rs80m; appointment as mukhtiarkar entails a bribe of Rs40m.
In accordance with a retired official, “There’s an examination referred to as the income qualifier examination for clerical employees who’ve served three years within the Income Division. Clerks have paid Rs15m to Rs20m to turn into assistant mukhtiarkar. Near 30 clerks have turn into assistant mukhtiarkars on this method.”
Typically, all it takes for profession development is to domesticate a mutually helpful relationship with a political patron. Daybreak was informed that in a single land growth authority, a person on a contingency contract as a watchman was now a grade-19 officer on an especially essential publish.
The good Karachi land seize
Actual property in Karachi has been the reason for a lot dysfunction and violence. The ultimate JIT report wanting into the homicide on March 13, 2013 of Perween Rahman, director of the Orangi Pilot Venture, provided a revealing commentary.
Referring to the interval between 2006-2012, and the ethnic battle between Pashtuns and Mohajirs, it famous that cadres of each MQM and ANP had been closely concerned in numerous prison actions, particularly land grabbing, as had been the Taliban who had been a potent militant power in Karachi on the time. “… no matter their acknowledged political variations, all three teams labored hand in glove … Massive builders … would ally themselves with these teams, utilizing the militant wings of those teams as their ‘muscle’, with a purpose to forcibly seize land. Anybody who got here of their method was both threatened, or in the event that they refused to again off, killed. …[O]ften murders that had been declared as being politically motivated or acts of terrorism, had been in precise truth land disputes that had been made to appear to be political killings to cowl up the true info. The state equipment, within the form of the land income administration or the police, was both too weak, or complicit within the face of the good Karachi land seize.”
It was towards this backdrop that the then Supreme Court docket Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry in 2012 whereas listening to the Karachi ‘badamni’ (unrest) case, banned the Sindh authorities from effecting mutation, allotment, or switch of any authorities land in Sindh till the province’s land document — big quantities of which was destroyed within the rioting following the homicide of Benazir Bhutto — was digitised. (The courtroom conditionally lifted the ban in 2019 in situations the place the document had been computerised.)
However the ban meant little within the areas of Karachi the place state land was plentiful.
Throughout retired Justice Maqbool Baqar’s tenure as chief minister Sindh within the runup to the 2024 election, an enquiry was held into allotments and mutations made by BoR Sindh between 2012 and 2023. That’s, after the Supreme Court docket ban. A few of the findings are as follows.
In Manghopir, district West, there have been solid entries and faux allotments in land document; an incident of arson was dedicated in 2021 by income officers, together with mukhtiarkars and tapedars, “to intentionally destroy faux entries saved by the income officers in collusion with non-public beneficiaries”.
In deh Bund Murad, additionally district West, the enquiry discovered that “Authorities land price billions of rupees in numerous na class … was illegally transferred to personal people… .” Quite a few income officers had been named as being complicit and buying belongings past their means. None of them seems to have been prosecuted.
In accordance with the 2018 JIT report on cash laundering price billions of rupees by faux financial institution accounts, 562 acres of state land in Sindh, together with 363 acres of Pakistan Metal Mill land, had been “illegally allotted to personal builders inflicting a lack of Rs4.14 billion to the nationwide exchequer”. The report additionally alleged that Bahria City Ltd had remitted Rs10bn into the faux accounts as kickbacks for grabbing 1000’s of acres of state in addition to non-public lands for its tasks in Karachi.
In 2023, a member of Sindh’s caretaker cupboard informed Daybreak: “[During the previous government,] the sub registrars and mukhtiarkars in Karachi would accumulate 600 to 700 million rupees per 30 days for ‘upward’ distribution. They’d a free hand. Even when somebody’s land was authorized, they’d nonetheless cost in accordance with the ‘system’ on the fee that they had set, eg Korangi, Rs300,000 per acre. By transferring mukhtiarkars, we disrupted that system of assortment.”
Beneath the caretaker setup, per one authorities official, safety companies had been mentioned to have taken up the duty of ‘cleansing the system’. Officers had been assured that “qabzas is not going to occur like earlier than”. Plenty of individuals had been even placed on the ECL, unofficially if not formally. However regardless of these claims, fairly little has modified in the way in which that actual property is occupied within the metropolis. The faces could also be completely different, however the practices stay the identical.
Thus, people like Mr Brohi have even higher sway than earlier than; they’re fixtures within the corridors of energy, protected by their formidable patrons. In accordance with a bureaucrat, “Even DIGs, senior authorities officers will exit of their solution to preserve good relations with them.”
Maybe that’s the reason Fayyaz Solangi, the previous DC West who positioned that damning discover within the newspapers towards Mr Brohi again in 2020, put in one other discover on July 8, 2025 — 5 years later — in Urdu, English and Sindhi newspapers containing a grovelling apology, and stating that an enquiry had not established allegations of land grabbing towards him. An excerpt from the discover reads “…I had already apologized to him in particular person and directed my employees to concern corrigendum to this impact however sadly the identical [was] not printed on a well timed foundation and I used to be transferred…”
That shameful apology was a step too far, even for a severely compromised paperwork. Two days later, the previous DC West swiftly discovered himself lowered to officer on particular obligation by the chief secretary Sindh. Mr Solangi didn’t reply to Daybreak’s repeated requests for remark.
As for Jibrail Khan, the JUI-F native chief who ran afoul of sure political bigwigs, the intercession of his get together management seems to have magically made the FIRs towards him soften into skinny air. Despite the fact that he has but to acquire bail in all of the circumstances, he’s out of jail. The ‘system’ is aware of when compromise is a greater closing gambit.
*Some names have been modified to guard id.
Maps by Daybreak, GIS.
All photographs by creator.
Header picture by Radia Durrani.
Further info by Hawwa Fazal.
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