MULTAN, July 9th:Land Mafia and property-grabbers and their facilitators would be taken to task. Government would not allow anyone to grab the property of overseas Pakistanis who were serving abroad to strengthen the country's economy and foreign exchange reserves, said Governor Punjab Ch. Muhammad Sarwar while talking to a delegation of senior lawyers led by Syed Athar Hassan Shah Bukhari ex-President of High Court Bar here today. The delegation comprised on Azeem-ul-Haq Peerzada, Sheikh Tanvir Ahmed, Muhammad Salim Ansari, Rana Anwar Ali, Syed Ibrahim Hassan Shah Bukhari, and Hafiz Allah Ditta Kashif. Governor said that Government would not spare the land-grabbers and exemplary punishment would be awarded to them and rights & interests of overseas Pakistanis would be safeguarded at all costs.
The delegation informed the Governor that an organised gang of influential land grabbers was active in Multan city which had grabbed the property of an overseas Pakistani Sheikh Manzoor-ul-Hassan living in Glasgow (UK).Its market value is not less than Rs.5 billion. They had constructed 100 shops and a big shopping plaza was being developed on his land without any approval from the Development Authority. Explaining the modus operandi of this gang, Senior Lawyer Athar Shah said that they prepare fictitious sale deed or forged stamp papers to pose themselves buyers of this property. Syed Athar Shah Bukhari said that Rao Muhammad Yasir and Malik Muhammad Asim Dehar were master-mind of this gang.Sheikh Hashmat Iqbal Qureshi, Shujaat Hashmat Qureshi, Ishrat-Ullah Qureshi, and Malik Khizar Ran are members of this gang. He apprised Governor Punjab that ten cases of illicit occupation have so far been registered against them by the affectees. Syed Athar Shah asked when a case was under process in the court of law and the court granted an interim injunction . How can this property be used to stand a big shopping plaza? Later, Government asked the Deputy Commissioner Multan Ali Shehzad and CPO Multan to brief him about this "Qabza Mafia,"Upion this they confirmed all allegations and they told that Rao Yasir is behind the bar while Asim Dehar is out of lockup but he would soon be behind bars . Governor ordered to get this land and demolish the construction immediately.
