KARACHI: The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the Sindh Assembly on Tuesday gave a six-month deadline to the Board of Revenue (BoR) to restore and computerise the records of the rights of land, which were burnt or destroyed in the violence erupted after the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.

It also summoned the officers of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) investigating irregularities in the Right Bank Outfall Drain (RBOD) project as the Board of Revenue could not produce the records of land acquisition which was in the NAB custody.

Presided over by PAC chairman Nisar Ahmed Khuhro, the meeting was informed that some part of the land record was destroyed in several districts in violent activities after the assassination of Benazir Bhutto on Dec 27, 2007, which could not be restored so far while some of the record of land pertaining to the RBOD project had been taken away by the NAB officials who were investigating into the irregularities in the scheme.

The meeting reviewed the audit reports of the Board of Revenue department for 2019 and 2020.

The BoR informed that the payment of compensation to the people who had given land for the RBOD project was also stopped by the deputy commissioners due to the NAB investigation.

The meeting was informed that the records of the properties of thousands of people were burnt in several districts, including Thatta, Jamshoro and Sujawal, following the Benazir Bhutto’s assassination and they were not re-established in 17 years.

The committee gave the BpR six-month deadline to restore and computerise the record of the rights.

The PAC chairman expressed displeasure over the failure of the officials in providing the records of billions of rupees in the RBOD-1 and RBOD-2 projects and those of the land acquired from private people for the project.

Jamshoro DC Ghazanfar Qadri told the PAC that some records had been burnt in the 2007 tragedy and the rest were taken by the NAB for investigation into the RBOD project.

Published in Dawn, December 4th, 2024