Nearly 4,000 acres of Pakistan Railways land occupied by govt, defence departments: Minister

At least 3,999 acres of land allocated to Pakistan Railways (PR) have been occupied illegally by government and defence departments, according to a report shared by the Ministry of Railways.

Railway Minister Hanif Abbasi on Monday submitted a response to queries posed by lawmakers, stating, “PR owns 168,858 acres of land across the country, out of which 13,115 acres or 7.7% is under illegal occupation.” 

The minister said PR is continuously attempting to reclaim its land. Over the last five years, it has successfully recovered 2,550 acres from illegal occupants. However, the response did not clarify whether the encroachers include government and defence departments.

The queries were raised by coalition party PPP’s Shazia Marri and opposition party PTI’s Sher Afzal Marwat, urging to share the “names of the individuals, entities, or organisations currently occupying railway land illegally with specific locations and extent of each encroachment”.   

Additionally, they demanded a province-wise break-up of the occupied land, as well as details of the land retrieved by PR from illegal occupation.

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The response from the Ministry of Railways noted that several governmental departments, including “agriculture, commercial, residential, and government/defence department”, were in the list of occupants. 

It highlighted that the individuals and departments have occupied at least 4,773 acres of land linked to agriculture, followed by 3,999 acres by the “government/ defence departments”

Moreover, the reply stated that 3,266 acres of PR land are being used for residential purposes, and 712 acres have been utilised to gain illegal commercial goals.

Government and defence departments have unlawfully grabbed 2,539 acres of land in Punjab, 764 acres in Sindh, 349 acres in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and 347 acres in Balochistan.

Minister Abbasi said that with five years of effort, railways retrieved at least 1,078 acres of land from illegal possession in Punjab and 837 acres in Sindh. In Balochistan and KP, around 419 acres and 218 acres of land have been retrieved, respectively.

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The reply showed the railway has not retrieved a single piece of land from the possession of the “government and defence departments” in five years of anti-encroachment operation.

“Unauthorised possession of railway land by government departments is being regularised through leases under the Railway Land Policy,” said the minister.

The minister declined the possibility of encroachment on Pakistan Railways' land in the past five years after the retrieval.

Minister Abbasi mentioned that Pakistan Railways earned a total of Rs 13.9 billion in revenue from leasing and licensing its land during the last three fiscal years.