mtiaz Ahmed, a resident of Peoples Colony, has been running from pillar to post for three weeks to register a two-kanal agricultural land purchase in the Saddar tehsil. Despite several visits to the district courts, the Land Record Centre and the Khidmat Markaz, the registration remains pending.

Acting on his lawyer’s advice, says Imtiaz, he had visited the Land Record Centre only to be told that the sub-registrar would be available at the Khidmat Markaz on January 13,

“When I went there, I was informed that the sub-registrar had gone to attend a hearing at the Lahore High Court,” he says. Staff at both the Land Record Centre and the Khidmat Markaz have been citing ‘technical issues’ to explain the delay.

Rana Muhammad Musa, the additional deputy commissioner in charge of revenue (ADCR) tells The News on Sunday that, since January 14, the Punjab Land Record Authority has restricted sub-registrars’ online system access to improve security.

Under the new protocol, sub-registrars can use their accounts only at designated e-registration centres in their tehsils.

Also, since January 14, the recording of statements for land registrations has been suspended in Faisalabad and several other districts.

The ADCR says the government continues to introduce measures to curb bribery in the Revenue Department. He says that restricting remote system access is intended to ensure sub-registrars’ physical presence at their designated stations during office hours and personally record statements for land transactions.

He says for the six-seven months he had been in office, he has been making consistent efforts to improve transparency and efficiency in land transactions. “Picture-based attendance has been introduced to ensure sub-registrars’ presence. If any of them is assigned court or field duty, I personally verify that,” he adds.

Allegations of bribery

Muhammad Sajid, alleges that he was forced, a few months ago, to pay a Rs 25,000 bribe to ensure registration of a land transaction. He says that after he was kept waiting for several hours for the sub-registrar, the staff informed that the officer was attending a meeting at the DC’s Office.

“After 2pm, a staff member went to the DC’s Office to log into the system on the sub-registrar’s behalf. He never returned,” he says. Frustrated, says Sajid, he was preparing to leave when his lawyer took him to the office of a stamp vendor at the tehsil office. He was assured that efforts were being made to get the statement recorded the same day.

“There were many other people there for similar land registration. By the time Maghrib prayer was called, most of them had left,” he recalls. Sajid says he was then taken through a narrow passage hidden behind a cupboard into another room, where men sitting behind computers were recording statements, taking photographs and conducting biometric verification.

He says he was shocked to witness “open collection of bribes by Revenue Department staff.” He says he has been told by some staff members that work will not resume until their demand for allowing sub-registrars to operate the accounts using at least three laptops is accepted.

Land ownership records are central to many citizens’ economic and social lives. The land records system in the Punjab comprises several institutions, including the Board of Revenue, the Excise and Taxation Department and various development authorities. The administrative structure of the Board of Revenue is organised at the district, tehsil, qanungo circle and patwar circle levels. At the district level, the overall supervision of the land revenue system rests with the district officer (revenue); patwar circle is the grassroots administrative unit. Across the Punjab, nearly 8,000 patwaris maintain land records for around 20 million landowners, in addition to records of state lands.

The field officials

The patwari has a pivotal role in the revenue system. His responsibilities include assessing and collecting agricultural tax, recording inheritance information, overseeing land sales and transfers and maintaining all land-related records.

According to Muhammad Asghar, a former Revenue Department employee now working as a lawyer’s assistant, a patwari looks after 17 registers. These include the Register of Landowners, Khasra Girdawari, field books, transaction records and data on rainfall, storms, thefts, robberies, epidemics and crop cultivation.

He says the most sought-after land document is the ownership certificate, also known as fard, which can only be issued by the patwari. “A fard is essential to prove land ownership, secure bail in court cases, obtain a bank loan or benefit from a government scheme,” he says.

Another important document is fard-i-bai’a or sales deed. Asghar says that most patwaris are appointed through political influence or recommendations. This, he says, is partly the reason they can evade accountability.

“Many patwaris outsource their work to private individuals, limiting their own role to stamping and signing official documents,” he says.

Evidence

On January 14, the Anti-Corruption Police arrested a patwari, Muneeb, “red-handed while accepting a Rs 96,000 bribe.” The complainant, Alamgir Ahmed, said, Patwari Munib had demanded Rs 150,000 to issue fard per forma for six kanals of inherited land.

“I pleaded that I could not afford such an amount, but he refused to issue the document for anything less,” Ahmed said. He said he paid Rs 44,000 and when the patwari still refused to process the document, he reported the matter to the Anti-Corruption Police. The suspect was arrested “during the payment of the remaining amount.”

Police officials said the suspect was in judicial custody and that the challan had been submitted to the court.

Most citizens facing similar extortion avoid filing complaints. Muhammad Aslam, a farmer from Chak 228-RB in Saddar tehsil, said a patwari had demanded Rs 50,000 from him for issuing a fard-i-bai’a for one acre of agricultural land.

“After several visits and invoking personal connections, the deal was settled for Rs 15,000. Even then, the patwari delayed the issuance of the document for three weeks,” he said.

Aslam said that nearly Rs 50,000 was later extracted in the name of land measurement, preparation of site maps and girdawari.

Digitisation as a solution

Muhammad Qasim, a software engineer, suggests complete digitisation of patwari’s services and a tracking system to curb corruption.

“If applicants are issued tokens, pay the dues online and are assured of service according to a clear timeframe, patwaris can be held accountable for delays,” he says.

Although the Punjab Land Record Authority has fixed service charges for land record documents, these rates are neither displayed at patwar offices nor properly advertised. Many of the services provided by patwaris are not even listed in the official PLRA service charges notification.

As a result, the provision of these services remains entirely at the discretion of patwaris, enabling them to demand arbitrary sums and delay work. No receipts are issued for these payments.

Reform initiatives

On January 1, the Board of Revenue notified a ban on the registration and approval of land transfers based on oral transactions.

According to instructions issued by the BoR, no land mutation, whether for sale, mortgage, exchange or gift, will be processed based on an oral transaction. The rule specifically excludes inheritance cases. It says that mutations for the transfer of land rights will only be processed when supported by a duly registered instrument, in accordance with the Registration Act, 1908 and the Transfer of Property Act, 1882.

The BoR has also withdrawn certain powers from patwaris. Under the new system, patwaris will retain limited authority, primarily focused on land records maintenance, revenue collection and providing judicial records. Their role in property sales and transfers has been abolished.

Resistance

Reacting to the reform initiatives, many patwaris have stopped working, causing widespread disruption in land-related services.

According to Advocate Rashid Ali, who regularly handles land registration cases, the government’s efforts to curb corruption and improve service delivery are being undermined by collusion within the Revenue Department.

“To date, no patwari, sub-registrar or other revenue official has been meaningfully punished for accepting a bribe,” he says. “People do not file complaints because they believe that the corrupt officials will face no real accountability, while their own land matters will be sabotaged in retaliation.”

He says incomplete digitisation of land records remains one of the primary drivers of corruption.

Transparency deficit

Requests filed under the Right of Access to Information Act seeking details of corruption complaints, disciplinary action against revenue officials and the status of land record digitisation in Faisalabad have remained unanswered for over a year. Appeals pending before the Punjab Information Commission have also seen no progress.

Digitisation progress

The Punjab Land Record Authority was established in 2017 as the Board of Revenue, with World Bank’s support, launched the Punjab Land Record Management Information System to simplify land transactions and computerise property records. The system was piloted in 18 districts in 2013 and expanded province-wide in 2016.

However, land records across Punjab remain only partially digitised. As a result, patwaris continue to exercise significant control over land ownership data.

PLRA’s Response

Responding to the concerns, PLRA spokesperson Ali Raza stated that all revenue records across the Punjab had been scanned and digitised.

He said work was currently under way to recover missing mutations and to implement an interim mutation mechanism, a process scheduled to be completed by March 2026.

He added that a structured exercise to correct inconsistencies and recover missing mutations had been initiated. Digitisation of the remaining mauzas (villages) was planned to be completed within the next six months. The spokesperson maintained that all PLRA service charges were notified, publicly available and clearly defined, leaving no ambiguity.

He also rejected reports of service suspension, saying that there had been halt of operations in the Punjab and that MPLS networking has been functional in all tehsil-level sub-registrar offices since 2021.

Asccording to him, only internet-based remote access to sub-registrar logins was restricted from January 14 for cybersecurity and public convenience, to ensure that the services are provided strictly from designated offices, in line with official directives issued in September 2021.

Structural flaws

Land Titles In the Punjab: Overview, Problems and Suggestions, by Umar Siddiq, a senior research economist, and Abida Noreen, a research fellow at the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, concluded that the delay in land record digitisation in the Punjab was rooted in structural, legal and governance failures rather than technical limitations.

The PIDE report said the system was still based on colonial-era laws that focus on revenue collection instead of securing land ownership. It said digitisation under the Punjab Land Record Management Information System had transferred flawed manual records into digital form without addressing issues such as unclear ownership, disputed boundaries and the absence of conclusive land titles.

The study noted that institutional resistance and political influence of powerful landowners had also slowed reform, as meaningful digitisation would reduce discretionary control within the Revenue Department.

“Moreover, fragmented systems, where revenue records and property registration operate separately, force citizens to rely on officials and middlemen, sustaining corruption. Weak oversight, poor staff capacity and lack of accountability further exacerbate delays and rent-seeking practices.”

To address these challenges, the researchers recommended a conclusive, state-guaranteed land title system, integrating registration and revenue records into a single digital registry and modernise land surveys using the GIS technology.

Strengthening accountability, enforcing strict penalties for misconduct and improving administrative capacity are essential to curb corruption and ensure that digitisation delivers real benefits to citizens.

The writer has been associated with journalism for the past decade. He tweets @naeemahmad876