Cadastral Template 2.

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http://cadastraltemplate.org/pakistan.php

Pakistan

Contact person for provided information:

Last modified on 25-Jul-2020

Muhammad Sheraz Ahsan, PhD Scholar, Institute of Geographical Information Systems (IGIS), National
University of Sciences and Technology (NUST), Islamabad, Pakistan, ahsan.sheraz@gmail.com, (updated,
modified and edited the document on July 24, 2020)
Javaid Akhtar, Chairman, Lahore Development Authority Commission, Government of Punjab,
Lahore   javid393@aol.com (updated, modified and edited the document on May 13, 2017)
Originally written on 11-Oct-2012 by:
Johum Fatimah Mirza Institute of Geographical Information Systems (IGIS), National University of Sciences
and Technology (NUST), Islamabad, Pakistan. MS Research Student   fatimah10@igis.nust.edu.pk
Muhmmad Adeel Department of Urban Studies, University of Hong Kong (HKU), Hong Kong. (Ph. D) candidate
 
 
Part 1: Country Report
A. Country Context

A.1 Geographical Context

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Pakistan officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign country in South Asia covering an area of
796,095 sq.km. (307,374 sq. mile). According to 2017 national population census, the country was home to
207.77 million people. Now, the population of the country has grown to 233.5 million people ranking it at fifth
place in world population table. Located at the crossroads of the strategically important regions of South Asia,
Central Asia and Western Asia, Pakistan has a 1,046-kilometre (650 mile) coastline along the Arabian Sea and
the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by India to the east, Afghanistan to the west and north, Iran to
the southwest and China in the far northeast. It is separated from Tajikistan by Afghanistan's narrow Wakhan
Corridor in the north, and also shares a marine border with Oman[1].
According to Ministry of Climate Change, Government of Pakistan the country consists of 26.9% of range land,
24.5% of exposed rocks, 19.9% of agriculture land, 10% of open land, 9.7% of deserts, 5.4% of forests, 2.2 % of
snow/glaciers, 0.5% of water bodies, water logged and saline bodies.[2]  Out of 79.6 million hectares of total
geographical area, about 27 percent of the area is currently under cultivation. Of this area, 80 percent is
irrigated. Pakistan has one of the highest proportions of irrigated cropped area in the world. The cultivable
waste lands 8.25 % offer good possibilities of crop production.
Pakistan is divided into three major geographic areas: the northern highlands, the Indus River plain and the
Balochistan Plateau. Ranging from the coastal areas of the south to the glaciated mountains of the north,
country’s landscapes vary from plains to deserts, forests, hills and plateaus.
 
[1] Wikipedia. Pakistan. [Online] Available at: [Accessed September 2012].
[2] NEIMS. Land Use Atlas of Pakistan. [Online] Available at: [Accessed September 2012].
 

Pakistan Official Country Map

A.2 Historical Context

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The territory of modern Pakistan was home to several ancient cultures, including the Neolithic Mehrgarh and
the Bronze Age Indus Valley Civilisation. The area has been ruled by numerous empires and dynasties,
including the Indian Mauryan Empire, the Persian Achaemenid Empire, the Arab Umayyad Caliphate, the
Mongol Empire, the Mughal Empire, the Durrani Empire, the Sikh Empire and the British Empire. In the
twentieth century Mr. Muhammad Ali Jinnah led a struggle for the rights of Muslim minority in the Indian sub-
continent and as a result, Pakistan was created on 14th August 1947 as an independent country.
Constitutionally remaining a dominion for some years, Pakistan adopted a new constitution in 1956, becoming
an Islamic Republic. Pakistan is a federal parliamentary republic consisting of four provinces and four federal
territories. It is an ethnically and linguistically diverse country[1]. Urdu is the national language and English is
official language.
 
[1]  Wikipedia. Pakistan. [Online] Available at: [Accessed September 2012]

A.3 Current Political and Administrative Structures

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Pakistan is a federation of four provinces: Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (inlcuding newly merged
Federally Administred Tribal Areas) and Balochistan, as well as the Federal Capital Territory. The Government
of Pakistan exercises de facto jurisdiction over the western parts of the disputed Kashmir region, organized
into the separate political entities Azad Kashmir and Gilgit–Baltistan (formerly Northern Areas). Local
government system consist of a three-tier system of districts, tehsils and union councils, with an elected body
at each tier. There are about 149 districts altogether. The Tribal Areas comprise seven tribal agencies and six
small frontier regions detached from neighboring districts which are administered by the Federation.

A.4 Historical Outline of Cadastral System

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The development of Cadastral System of Pakistan has a common history with other counties of the region. The
tax on land was initially collected through community head or a government official. Normally, the size of area
indicated by the community was accepted. Historians have traced the regular survey and measurement of
land during the rule 0f Alluddin Khilji (1296-1316) when the ruler attempted to collect revenue directly from
farmers. He hired large number of accountants, agents and collectors.[1] The system was further improved
during the period of two rulers Sher Shah Suri and Akbar the Great (1540-1605). ‘Ain-e-Akbari’, a book written
by one of the Minister Abu’l Fazal, during the Akbar reign has recorded the measurement of provinces and
sub-provinces of empire.[2] The British adopted the existing revenue collection system but to assess the
revenue they carried detail survey of the land and this exercise was named as ‘settlement’. The purpose of
settlement was to determine that who will pay the assessed amount.[3] During the settlement cartographic
sheets were used on which the parcels of land with unique number and measurement of area was indicated.
The tribal areas and inhabited areas, however, remained excluded from ‘settlement’ during the British period
and also thereafter.
 
[1]
 Chandra, Satish (2004). Medieval India: From Sultanat to the Mughals-Delhi Sultanat (1206-1526) - Part One
p-83
 
[2] Irfan Habib, Agrarian System of Mughal  India 1556-1707
[3] Douie, Sir James M. 1981 6th Edition Lahore
B. Institutional Framework
B.1 Government Organizations
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Land Administration is a provincial subject. But the laws and rules promulgated by the Provinces and
Federating Units are in conformity with each other because before region now comprising Pakistan was
administratively one unit till 1970.
The land related data is possessed and maintained at the level[1] of provinces and federally administrated
areas who feed the Federal Government for compilation of data.
A variety of data sources dealing with different data types including topographic maps, land information, social
and economic data, statistical records, satellite data/ aerial photographs and revenue records operate in the
country with specific tasks. For example, Survey of Pakistan (SoP) is responsible for preparing, archiving,
updating and maintaining all kinds of topographic maps at varying scales. The provincial, divisional, district and
Tehsil or taluka boundaries are also available with SoP. The land and revenue records are maintained by the
local administration of provincial departments[2].
For Rural areas records of lands are exclusively maintained by Provincial Boards of Revenue through Revenue
Officers.  Record of land ownership according to survey number wise is maintained even in the urban areas by
the Provincial Boards of Revenue. However area which is controlled by Ministry of Defence or which has been
allocated to Urban Development Authorities and Private Housing Societies; the concerned organizations 
maintain the individual holdings record. Although sale-purchase transactions of land falling in the Rural Areas
can also carried through sale-deeds registered with Registrar appointed by the Government, but presumption
of truth is attached to the land record maintained by government officials.
 
[1] USAID Country Profile. Property Rights and Resource Governance-Pakistan. [Online] Available at: [Accessed
September 2012].
 

Land administration hierarchy in Pakistan

B.2 Private Sector Involvement

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All most all of the cadastral surveys and registration in Pakistan are undertaken by the state government
departments such as Board of Revenue (BoR) (at provincial level) in rural areas and Government Development
authorities (DAs) in urban areas.
Private sector involvement is only in limited number of urban areas where land/property falls under the
jurisdiction of private housing authorities. In such case only the land registration and survey is carried out by
responsible private body. In some cases private sectors are now being involved for generating GIS and LIS for
better management of land resources.

B.3 Professional Organization or Association

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There are two main professional organizations in Pakistan that are involved in surveying and mapping. First is
Survey of Pakistan (SoP) which is responsible for preparation and maintenance of all sorts of topographic land
surveys of areas of entire country on the scales of 1:50000, 1:250,000 and 1:1,000,000. SoP carries out survey
activity using latest digital equipment and surveyors but no. of surveyors are not reported. Other than that,
second professional organization is Board of Revenue (BoR) which is the controlling authority in all matters
connected with the administration of land, land taxation, preparation, updating and maintenance of cadastral
records. Cadastral surveys are carried by Board of Revenue through its regular employed staff known as
“Patwari or Tapedar”. Besides carrying out survey Patwari is also responsible for 1) the maintenance of record
of the crop grown at every harvest. 2) The keeping of the record of rights up to date by the punctual record of
mutations. 3) The account of preparation of statistical returns embodying the information derived from the
harvest inspections, register of mutation and record of rights. According to an estimate there are
14000 patwaris in Pakistan responsible for approximately 190 million land records which contain data of 50
million land owners[1]. Patwaris have their professional associations to protect and bargain their rights.
In Punjab province a separate Punab Land Record Authority has been created in year 2017 under BoR to
maintain and update the land record. However he updating of map is still job of the patwari or Tapedar.
Punjab Board of Revenue under the World Bank funding created cadastral maps of three districts (Lahore,
Hafizabad, Lodhran) as a template, which further require techncial improvements [2]
 
[1] Panchaud.N., 2010. Cadastral System in Pakistan Present Situation and Future Challenges, Cadastral
Systems-Essay. [Online] Available at: [Accessed September 2012].
[2] Ahsan, Muhammad Sheraz., Hussain, Ejaz., Ali, Zahir., (2016). Integrated geospatial evaluation of manual
cadastral mapping: A case study of Pakistan, Survey Review, DOI: 10.1080/00396265.2016.1180755

B.4 Licensing
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The Land Revenue Act which regulate the land administration provides that survey can be carried out by an
agency other than that of Revenue Officers and village officers but for that purpose Board of Revenue will
identify the local area to be surveyed and the nature of survey, the names of persons to be engaged and the
kind of boundary marks to be erected. The officials engaged will have the same powers as entrusted to
government official. But this legal provision has never been used for the cadastral mapping. However
sometimes powers have been entrusted to different government officials for carrying out the survey for
acquisition of the land.  Therefore, all the cadastral survey work is carried out by the government surveyors of
state.
Surveyors hired by Survey of Pakistan are Diploma holders in Civil Surveying or Civil Engineering. While Board
of Revenue has its own system of training of newly recruited Patwaris (surveyors) and proper syllabus for
education, training and examination of Patwaris is in place.  
Survey of Pakistan introduced a legislative framework 1 to regulate Surveying and Mapping activities in Pakistan
in 2014. According to the framework no individual or company can carry surveying and mapping activities in
the country unless licensed by Survey of Pakistan. 
 
1
Surveying and Mapping ACT , 2014
[http://www.surveyofpakistan.gov.pk/SiteImage/Misc/files/surveying_and_mapping_act_2014.pdf]

B.5 Education
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There are no devoted educational institutions for granting degrees in surveying. But surveying related subjects
are offered at all engineering universities in Pakistan under four years bachelor degree of civil
and geoinformatic engineering and there are postgraduate level study in geo-information in few selected
universities. Besides that, Survey of Pakistan, Board of Revenue impart education to their staff. Board of
Technical Education and some private institutions do offers certificates and diploma ranging from three
months to 12 months in ‘Survey Trade’. 

C. Cadastral System

C.1 Purpose of Cadastral System

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The Cadastral System has backing of numerous laws ranging from collection of revenues, transfer and
acquisition of right of immovable property, consolidation of land holdings, colonization and acquisition of land
for public purposes etc. Though these laws have been promulgated by Provinces but the contents of Acts are
same. The cadastral system have legal, fiscal and other multipurpose roles. The maps prepared by staff
working under the Board of Revenue, helps in planning and control for land allocation to government
department and agencies since no government department can acquire the land without the approval of
Board of Revenue. Under the Acquisition Act 1894, the government can acquire land for public purposes both
for government agencies and private companies.
Cadastral system of Pakistan has been inherited colonial period of British rule in the sub-continent which
lasted till the middle of 20th century. The British colonial government introduced scientific and large scale
cadastral system aimed at ownership delineation and tax collection. The system was designed to maintain,
transfer and access of land and to collect revenue and other levies from the land holders. Current manual
cadastral system of Pakistan is approximately 500 years old so it does not provide sufficient base for an
efficient land record management. However the efforts are in way at various stages to computerize the land
record but it may be termed as digitization of existing record and to some extent the incorporation of changes
in the titles of land holding but it is far from a comprehensive SDI.

C.2 Types of Cadastral System

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The cadastral system covers the whole area of Pakistan except tribal areas and inhabited areas. But the
authority to manage the Cadastral System lies with Provincial government who enforce it through respective
Boards of Revenue. The Federal government’s Ministries and even Armed Forces are bound to approach
Board of Revenue for acquisition or transfer of rights over land. The forest land in the record is indicated as
State land and by an amendment in Punjab Forest Act 1927, the nature of protected or reserved Forest land
cannot be changed.[1] All mines of metal and coal, all earth oil, gold washings belong to state even they are
not entered in the land record as such.[2]
In the record of Board of Revenue, the inhabited areas at the time of settlement were referred as ‘within red
line’ (Lal Lakir). Many areas which were part of agriculture or rural land at the time of settlement are now
included in urban areas. The maps and record of Board of Revenue is therefore still used to determine the
ownership right of such land now falling in urban areas. Hence the cadastral system also covers certain urban
areas. In urban areas Cantonment Boards and Excise and Taxation Departments have certain jurisdiction and
maintain their own record of properties but it is only for collection of certain taxes. The transfer of rights on
land can only be executed through Board of Revenue.
The transfer of real property in urban areas is executed mutually by the parties but it is mandatory to get
register documents with the officers under the control of Board of Revenue in compliance of ‘The Registration
Act 1908’.[3]  While registering sale deeds, these officers are not supposed to perform detail enquiry regarding
authenticity of text of document. This leads to frauds, litigation and land grabbing.
The Development Authorities in Public sector and private housing companies or societies, can transfer rights
of such land which they have purchased either from the government or private individuals, provided they have
got ownership rights.
The rapid migration to urban areas since 1970s, rising cost of land and non-introduction of low cast housing
schemes in public sector have encouraged illegal settlement and squatting. To regularize, develop and improve
these settlement Provinces have introduced ‘Katchi Abadi Laws’ and established ‘Authorities’ under these
Acts.
The linchpin in the land administration system is ‘Patwari’, who works in the field and is custodian of record.
The name of Patwari is found even in literature and books of ancient India. ‘Qunongo’ (named Girdawar in
some areas) supervise the work of patwari and verify entries in the record. Assistant Collector, Collector,
Commissioner and Board of Revenue have supervisory role and have different sanctioning and appellate
powers.
 
[1] Section 27 and Section 34-Aof Punjab Forest Land Act 1927
[2] West Pakistan Land Revenue Act 1967. This has been adopted by all provinces.
[3] Section 17 of the Registration Act 1908

C.3 Cadastral Concept

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The primary unit of a parcel of land is Survey Number or Khasra Number (in local language) which have a
unique number in an ‘Estate’ and is registered in record of rights as such. A survey number may have part of
its area cultivated and part uncultivated or part of one soil and part of another.[1] A Survey number may be
owned by a single owner or several owners. As such scenario no (ii) in question 2.3 on page 6 is applicable.
 The Estate is different from a village and may comprise of one village or several villages. This term is a legal
expression defined by the Act and forms the unit of revenue assessment and land administration.[2] The
boundaries of the estate are defined by boundary marks on the ground and on the map maintained by
Patwari. The maintenance of boundary mark is the responsibility of the community. The separate columns are
maintained in the land record to show the ownership and actual cultivation of a particular Survey number. The
cultivation may be by the same owner or by a tenant.
 
The holdings of landowners are indicated as ‘Khewat’ and of tenants as ‘Khatooni’. The separate record of
tenants in the land record protects the rights of tenants in the case of dispute over title and rents etc. Owner
of land and land owner have distinguished entity. Every owner of land is a “land-owner” but every “land-
owner” is not owner of the land. Mortgagees with possession are certainly land-owners within this definition
but they are not owners of land.[3]
 Definitions
 
Property: The word property has been defined as the right and interest which a man has in lands and chattels
to the exclusion of others. It means not only the physical property but also rights in property.
 
Land: It includes benefits to arise out of land and things attached to the earth.
 
Survey Mark: Any mark set up by the Department of Survey of Pakistan.
 
Survey Number or Khasra Number: A portion of land of which the area is a separately entered under an
indicative number in the record of rights.
 
Landlord: is a person under whom a tenant holds land and to whom the tenant is or but for a special contract
would be liable to pay rent for the land.
 
Land-owner: A person to whom a holding has been transferred or an estate or holding has been left in farm,
for the recovery of an arrear of land revenue.
 
Real Estate: According to ‘The Punjab Real Estate Agents and Motor Dealers (Regulation of Business)
Ordinance 1980’, the “real estate” is an immovable property, including land, benefits to arise out of land, and
things attached to the earth, or permanently fasted to anything attached to the earth.
 
Holdings: A share or portion of an estate held by one landowner or jointly by two or more land-owners.
Vernacular equivalent is ‘Khewat’.
 
Ownership Units: The Karam or Kadam is a main unit of measure of length. Its length is 66 inches. The square
karam is known as Sarsahis and nine sarsahis make one marla. A kanal comprised 20 marlas. The housing
colonies mostly used the terms of Marla and Kanals. One Marla is 20.90 sq. meter and one Kanal is 420 sq.
meter.
 
Village Notebook (Lal Kitab): has valuable information and statistics regarding crops grown in the estate, soil
classification, area under different crops, land use, transfers in land, wells and other means of irrigation in the
village and abstract of the livestock and cattle census in the village.
  
The computerization of land record was attempted as early in 1973 as a pilot project but remained
unsuccessful. In 2004 Provincial government of Punjab started the computerization of land record (also known
as Land Record Information Managment Syste - LRMIS) in a phase manner with the assistance of World Bank.
Initially the availability to copy of record of rights to stakeholders and transfer of rights over land through
computerized system is the target. Though other Provinces have also started the work of computerization but
the Punjab Province it has lead in this initiative and has completed 85% work. At the service centers
established at Tehsil level initially following computerized facilities are provided.
 Issuance Copy of individual’s Record of Right (Fard)
 Attestation of Mutation
 Updation of Record of Right
 
[1] Mokal, Muhammad Iqbal Khan, ‘The Land Revenue Act 1967’, Lahore
 [2] Mokal ibid, p-13
[3] Mokal ibid, p-14jointly by 

C.4 Content of Cadastral System

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The Survey of Pakistan a federal government department carries out the survey of the whole territory but
their maps only show the physical features and don’t help in determining the ownership rights. For indicating
minerals, forests and other installations the concerned departments use these maps as base sheet. The
relevant to land administration is cadastral or field survey made by Patwari. He draws a field map (shajra
kishtwar) showing the position and boundary of every field (survey number), and record the area of each field
and the class or classes of land which it contains.
Followings Registers and records are maintained by the Patwari:
Register of Record of Rights (Misl Haqiyat); Mutation Register; Field Map; Harvest Inspection Register (Register
Girdawari); Genealogical tree of landowners; Periodical Record; Statement of rights in Irrigation; Statement of
customs respecting rights and liabilities in the estate; Daily Diary (Roznamcha); Village Notebook (Lal Kitab);
Though cadastral system is managed manually but it has detailed and comprehensive instructions on every
operational aspect and have backing of laws. Different tiers of supervision are supposed to inspect the record
regularly to ensure the correctness and transparency. But with the passage of time, supervisory and
administrative control over work of field officers (Patwari, Qunongo etc.) has weakened and there are a lot of
issues of transparency and reliability.
 
The computerization of land record was attempted as early in 1973 as a pilot project but remained
unsuccessful. In 2004 Provincial government of Punjab started the computerization of land record in a phase
manner with the assistance of World Bank. Initially the availability to copy of record of rights to stakeholders
and transfer of rights over land through computerized system is the target. Though other Provinces have also
started the work of computerization but the Punjab Province it has lead in this initiative and has completed
85% work. At the service centers established at Tehsil level initially following computerized facilities are
provided.
 Issuance Copy of individual’s Record of Right (Fard)
 Attestation of Mutation
 Updation of Record of Right
 Manual Cadastral System in Pakistan

D. Cadastral Mapping

D.1 Cadastral Map

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In Pakistan for each ‘Revenue Estate’ (Mouza) a separate cadastral map is prepared at the time of
‘Settlement’.  There are two types of The Settlement is carried out under the instructions of Provincial Boards
of Revenue and the purpose is to settle the land revenue with landowners to be paid by them. Normally
Settlement or survey is carried out in one district of a province at a time and after completion it is started in
the next district. A cadastral map of a Revenue Estate prepared on paper is called “Mussavi” in local language.

Kishtwar and rectangular survey are the two main systems for cadastral mapping practised in the country.
Land parcels in the Kishtwar survey system are arranged into irregular-shaped polygons, while Rectangular
survey arranges them in regular polygons (rectangle and/ or square). A block in rectangular survey system
consists of either 10, called Mustateel (rectangle), or 25 parcels, called Muraba (square). In a rectangular
survey system, some blocks and parcels may not be of regular form due to natural features and land mutation.
More than 90% of the canal irrigated plane areas are based on the rectangular survey system. Existing
cadastral maps contain no information about datum, selected coordinate system or related topographic
details and do not comply with modern cartographic standards. The parcel survey numbers within a district
are unique, but similar numbers are repeated for parcels in another district.
Pakistan’s cadastre map is paper based graphical representation of land parcels which are drawn at large scale
[14]. It shows all the fields, duly measured and numbered in a village or Revenue Estate. This is basically a
surveyed paper map at different scales depending upon village area, normally at a scale of 1″=40 Karam= 200’-
220’ (about 1:2500 scale or so according to parcel sizes in the village). The yard-stick of measuring a field is
called Karam which is 5.5 feet in length. Land parcels are labeled with their Khasra Number (parcel
identification number) and dimension of each side. For the facilitation of Survey staff the same map is also
drawn on white cotton cloth called Shajra Parch or Latha. The Survey staff during their visits to village carry
‘Latha’ which shows the measurement of all pieces of land in that village because it is easy to handle and
paper map is consulted when in office if required. A copy of the same paper map is kept in Tehsil Office, a sub-
division of a district..

Whenever there is transfer of land from one party to other, Patwari is bound under the Manual to draw a
Shajra Tatima which is basically map prepared of a portion or portions of a survey number to indicate the
division of land among the owners. The Shajra Tatima indicates the measurement of each new unit in a survey
number. The new units retain the old survey number but to differentiate and identify the newly created units
these are numbered as 1/1, 2/1, 3/1 and 4/1 so on.
Each Khasra Number can be owned by a one owner or many owners. After a new settlement new survey
number is allotted to every piece of land.

Village boundaries are demarcated through tri junction pillars which are erected at every point where
boundaries of more than two estate meet and are also shown on map by using red polygon like shape at the
boundary.

Every map has a proper title (consisting of village name and village identification number, tehsil and district
name of which it is part, along with the date when it was made) and legend which explains the symbology
presented in the map. Sometimes natural and manmade features are also shown on map for referencing
purpose like prominent road, river, stream etc. but they are not always part of the map. More over built up
area like houses and buildings are never shown on these hand drawn village maps.
 
 Figure 5: Cadastral map of Rectangular Survey System

D.2 Example of a Cadastral Map

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 Figure 6: Cadastral map of Kishtwar Survey System

D.3 Role of Cadastral Layer in SDI

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Currently in Pakistan the use of cadastral information is only limited within the fields of land administration
and taxation and currently it is not being used for other purposes such as utility mapping, e-government and
civic empowerment. One reason for that is the manual nature of existing cadasters which are difficult to
comprehend, update and thus difficult to integrate in other types of spatial information.
The computerization of land record was envisioned as back in 1992 in Punjab province and a pilot project was
initiated in Kasur district of the Province. But it could not be completed because of rapid changes in software,
bugs and lack of support of the provincial government. In 2004 the initiative to computerize the record in two
districts was undertaken but later it was decided to take a holistic approach and extend it to the whole of
Province. The Government of Pakistan on February 2007 signed a contract with IDA (World Bank) to finance
the implementation a project “Punjab Land Record Management and Information Systems” in the Province of
Punjab. After completion of initial phase the Punjab Government has established a “Punjab Land Record
Authority” in 2017 to administer the computerized land record. The other provinces has also started the
process of computerization of land record and are at different stages but none has able to provided service
delivery so far. Currently all the provinces are targeting the digitization of land record and it cannot be termed
as computerization in the real sense because it is not providing holistic solution. All what is being done is
outside of SDI domain.
 Digital Copy of Record of Rights

E. Reform Issues

E.1 Cadastral Issues

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The major issues of existing cadastral system are as follow:
1) Governance Related Issues: The comprehensive legal framework governing land rights is enforced but due
to Corruption of employees and nepotism by political leaders in the appointment of Revenue officers, who
administer the laws related to land, place poor, women and marginal communities  in disadvantageous
position.
2) Obsolete and Opaque Cadastral System: The existing manual system of maintenance of record, consisting
of paper maps and registers has become obsolete and opaque with the ever increasing user - interactions and
dimension of land rights. More over Land records do not provide either conclusive proof of ownership nor are
they linked to spatial data to perfectly identify the plot[1] which gives rise to many land related disputes,
cause delays in resolving pending cases and access to land related records.
3) Reliability of cadastral information: Cadastral Maps are prepared in indigenous language using local
obsolete surveying techniques and bearings and measurements.  Therefore, each map sheet has its
orientation and accuracy. Consequently sometimes the edges of the map do not match with that of adjacent
sheets. Cadastral maps are not integrated with national datum so that the land parcels cannot be integrated in
other developmental activities launched by the government.
4) Synchronize laws and rules with Computerization:  The current laws and rules administering the land
record were envisioned when it was handled manually. Now when there are efforts to digitize the land record
appropriate amendments in laws are also necessary.
 
 [1] Qazi.M.U.,2006. Computerization of land records in Pakistan: A comparative analysis of two projects from
a human Security Perspective. [Online] Japan: United Nations Centre for Regional Development. :

E.2 Current Initiatives

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Supreme Court of Pakistan, in an order in June 2012 order directed all provinces to replace the manual system
with digital records. All provincial government and administrative areas had started work on the
implementation of the order. This is an enormous task considering the numbers of land owners and cultivators
whose record is to be digitized. The Punjab provinces is ahead and has established a separate authority for
land record and has established Kiosk at every Tehsil headquarter. Other provinces are at the stage of data
entry regarding area of land and land owners. After implementation of projects, the people will get record of
their rights and transfer of ownership through Biometric from Kiosk especially established for this purpose.

F. References

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Part 2: Cadastral Principles and Statistics

1. Cadastral Principles
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title registration
1.1 Type of registration system
deeds registration

1.2 Legal requirement for registration Compulsory

of land ownership optional

systematic
1.4 Approach for establishment of sporadic
cadastral records both, systematic and sporadic
all properties already registered
2. Cadastral Statistics
Last modified on 25-Jul-2020

2.1 Population 233,500,000

2.2a Population distribution: percentage of

36
population living in urban areas

2.2b Population distribution: percentage of

64
population living in rural areas

2.3 Number of land parcels 190,000,000

--- Number of land parcels per 1 million

813,700
population

2.4 Number of registered strata

0
titles/condominium units

--- Number of strata titles/condominium units

0
per 1 million population

2.5 Legal status of land parcels in URBAN areas:

percentage of parcels that are properly

0
registered and surveyed

percentage of parcels that are legally occupied,

0
but not registered or surveyed

percentage of parcels that are informally

0
occupied without legal title

2.6 Legal status of land parcels in RURAL areas:

percentage of parcels that are properly

100
registered and surveyed

percentage of parcels that are legally occupied,

0
but not registered or surveyed

percentage of parcels that are informally

0
occupied without legal title

2.7 Number of active professional land

14,000
surveyors

2.8 Proportion of time that active professional

land surveyors commit for cadastral matters 100
(%)
--- Approx. full-time equivalent of land surveyors
14,000
committed to cadastral matters

2.9 Number of active lawyers/solicitors 0

2.10 Proportion of time that active

lawyers/solicitors commit for cadastral matters 0
(%)

--- Approx. full-time equivalent of active

lawyers/solicitors committed to cadastral 0
matters
Cadastral Mapping of State Lands
OP-ED
https://dailytimes.com.pk/914870/cadastral-mapping-of-state-lands/

Advocate Ghulam Rasool & Saqlain Akram

APRIL 7, 2022

As the incumbent government is stranded in multiple problems at various fronts ranging inflation,
depreciation of rupee against dollar, commodity basket price hike, shortfall of fertiliser and deteriorating
condition of economic landscape, but in all these predicaments, multiple steps on climate adaptability and
mitigation, Digitization of Land information System, Industrial Hamp research program, and cadastral mapping
of state-lands have been taken to reform agriculture System.
In order to reform the traditional cadastral system into a digitalised cadastral system, PM Imran Khan took a
great initiative to start the Cadastral Mapping of State-Lands. Pakistan inherited manual cadastral system of
land management which is both inef?cient and obsolete. It consists of Field Books, Record Registers and
Cadastral Maps prepared in graphical form on a paper called ‘Mussavi’ or on a piece of cloth called “Latha.”
Field Books contain attributes data prepared on the basis of physical ?eld surveys. These attributes include
parcel survey numbers, parcel dimensions, land type and total area of the parcel. The attributes information in
Field Books and Cadastral maps are prepared during land settlement which is supposed to be held once every
30-35years, but is rarely ever arranged in actual practice. Currently, Kishtwar in mountainous areas and
rectangular survey in plain areas are the two main systems for cadastral mapping practiced in the country.
Land parcels in the Kishtwar survey system are arranged into irregular-shaped polygons, while Rectangular
survey arranges them in regular polygons. The system is decentralised and each province has its own Board of
Revenue (BOR) to manually prepare, archive and manage their land records at three administrative levels i.e.
province (level-I), district (level-II) and tehsil (level-III). Being an old system, it has inherent drawbacks and
deficiencies resulting into inaccuracies in measurement. As a result, there is an increasing realisation that the
existing cadastral system is required to be transformed into modern system, which is fundamental to
economic development and environmental management in both cities and rural areas of the country. Last
year, PM directed the Survey of Pakistan (SOP) to tender the project of Cadastral Mapping of state-lands of
Punjab and KPK. SOP outsourced the project to different organisations. Multiple organizations offered their
services but SOP, after observing the efficiency and technical expertise assigned the Division of Rawalpindi to
Urban Unit; Lahore, Peshawar, DG Khan and Bahawalpur to TechGIS Pvt. Ltd and Sahiwal, Sargodha,
Faisalabad and Multan to Greenage Services Islamabad. This project of Cadastral Mapping involves following
steps.

Geo-referencing and digitisation of old Cadastral Maps without incorporating proper parcel measurements and
precise field surveys have resulted into a range of serious digitization, mosaicking and topological errors.

Data Acquisition: GIS is a tool that integrates data with maps and gives a product that contains both,
Geographic location and required information. In this project two type of data is required. Raster Data and
Tabular Data. Raster Data includes Mussavis, Lathas that are handmade maps of Mauzas and Satellite images
of Districts. Satellite images are purchased from different sources and Lathas and Mussavis are provided by
SOP which they obtained from BOR. Tabular Data is also provided by BOR and for verification, teams are sent
to field visit to obtain Patwari Record from District Administration.

Scanning of Mussavis: Next step is to scan the handmade Mussavis and Lathas. Maximum Mussavis were
scanned by SOP

Processing of Raster Data: Scanned Raster data in raw shape is received from SOP and is further processed to
make it ready for analysis through GIS softwares. That data is processed through coding and different
programming languages and is converted into spatial format that is readable to GIS softwares. Mussavis are
mosaicked into a complete raster image of a Mauza.

Geo-referencing: Geo-referencing is a process of superimposition of a scanned map or aerial photograph on its

spatial place on ground giving its geographic coordinates to it. Mosaicked Mauzas are given their geographic
coordinates into a geographic reference system and are superimposed on satellite images of their districts.
Now data is geographically aligned and is all set for further processing and analysis.

Digitisation: Digitisation is a process through which we convert our mosaicked images of Mauzas into vector
form according to the shapes on ground and Mussavis. This project is digitisation of state-lands so only those
Murabbas and Khasras would be digitised that are marked state property by the record which we received
from BOR and district Administration.

Shifting from traditional cadastral system to digitalised cadastral system will deliver multiple benefits. Some of
them are following; Mapping of land parcels and management in the form of database to upgrade century old
manual cadaster system will ensure quick service delivery due to easy retrieval of required land map
information from the digital cadastral database with attached attributes like name of the owner, area and
other information. Improved land management and local planning by providing clear and accurate information
will reduce corrupt practices in land transfers, land disputes and litigation. It will provide transparent land
record and online accessibility for land owners or end users. Modern cadastral system will support sustainable
economic development and environmental management. It will provide basic framework for local government
administration, city planning, collection and assessment of local government taxes and rates, managing
utilities, transport systems, education, health, forestry and resource management.

There are various problems that need to be tackled professionally in order to make it more accurate: (i)
Computerisation of land record and maps started at provincial level without proper study/plan. In 2006,
Punjab government introduced a land records digitisation initiative, in collaboration with the World Bank. This
initiative, called Land Record Management Information System (LRMIS), commenced with an objective to
convert attribute records into digital format. Geo-referencing and digitisation of old Cadastral Maps without
incorporating proper parcel measurements and precise ?eld surveys have resulted into a range of serious
digitization, mosaicking and topological errors in the system. (ii) Mussavis are too old and dilapidated that
make difficult to identify and trace actual feature. (iii) Identification of Murabbas, Khasra and sub- Khasra
number on Mussavis become very difficult. (iv) During field verification survey, a lot of difficulties were faced
by the field staff because in some areas district Administration was reluctant to extend its support.

Government should allocate more budget and resources in order to complete the existing project quickly and
to initiate the cadastral mapping of private land as well.

Advocate Ghulam Rasool is a visiting faculty member (Agriculture University, Rawalpindi) and Saqlain Akram is
an expert in GIS and Remote Sensing.
 International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0303243412000529

Volume 18,
August 2012, Pages 386-398

An integrated approach for updating cadastral maps in Pakistan using satellite remote
sensing data

ZahirAliab Arbind Tuladharb Jaap Zevenbergenb

a. Pakistan Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (SUPARCO), P.O. Box
8402, Karachi 75270, Pakistan
b. Faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation (ITC), University of Twente,
P.O. Box 217, 7500 AE Enschede, The Netherlands
Received 24 January 2011, Accepted 17 March 2012, Available online 17 April 2012.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jag.2012.03.008 Get rights and content

Abstract
Updating cadastral information is crucial for recording land ownership and property division changes in a
timely fashioned manner. In most cases, the existing cadastral maps do not provide up-to-date information on
land parcel boundaries. Such a situation demands that all the cadastral data and parcel boundaries
information in these maps to be updated in a timely fashion. The existing techniques for acquiring cadastral
information are discipline-oriented based on different disciplines such as geodesy, surveying, and
photogrammetry. All these techniques require a large number of manpower, time, and cost when they are
carried out separately. There is a need to integrate these techniques for acquiring cadastral information to
update the existing cadastral data and (re)produce cadastral maps in an efficient manner. To reduce the time
and cost involved in cadastral data acquisition, this study develops an integrated approach by integrating
global position system (GPS) data, remote sensing (RS) imagery, and existing cadastral maps. For this purpose,
the panchromatic image with 0.6 m spatial resolution and the corresponding multi-spectral image with 2.4 m
spatial resolution and 3 spectral bands from QuickBird satellite were used. A digital elevation model (DEM)
was extracted from SPOT-5 stereopairs and some ground control points (GCPs) were also used for ortho-
rectifying the QuickBird images. After ortho-rectifying these images and registering the multi-spectral image to
the panchromatic image, fusion between them was attained to get good quality multi-spectral images of these
two study areas with 0.6 m spatial resolution. Cadastral parcel boundaries were then identified on QuickBird
images of the two study areas via visual interpretation using participatory-GIS (PGIS) technique. The regions of
study are the urban and rural areas of Peshawar and Swabi districts in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of
Pakistan. The results are the creation of updated cadastral maps with a lot of cadastral information which can
be used in updating the existing cadastral data with less time and cost.

Highlights
▸ Selecting an efficient and low cost approach for collecting cadastral information. ▸ Integrating different data
sources and techniques for improving the quality of cadastral information. ▸ Assessing the newly developed
approach for extracting cadastral information in the study area.
Introduction
Cadastral information system is a set of processes for parcel/property based data collections including land
tenure, land use, and land value. Cadastre provides spatial integrity and unique identification of each and
every land parcel. Cadastres provide security of tenure by recording land rights in a land registry (Williamson
et al., 2010). A cadastre itself is a description of systematically organised land parcels in an area describing
individual land parcels/properties. This description is made through maps and land registers where the maps
show shape, size, and location of the land parcels on ground while the ownership, rights, area, and other
information is maintained in the land registers. A substantial amount of the land administration activity is of a
technical nature (UN-ECE, 2005). Land administration system contains, on one hand, the database containing
spatially referenced land data, and on the other hand the procedures and techniques for systematic collection,
updating, processing, and distribution of the data to the end users in an efficient manner. The elements of
technical perspective play important roles in different processes of LAS including system development, data
management (capture, maintenance, access), and process designing. All these elements are most important to
improve the efficiency of LAS by considering the pace of changing technology and social needs of a society.

The quality of cadastral data largely depends on processes (both legal and technical) or methodologies and
standards used for acquiring, structuring, and updating changes of ownership data and spatial division of
property units. While establishing land information systems (LIS), cadastral datasets are normally digitised
using the available cadastral maps and land registers where the cadastral maps show spatial data set such as
shape, size, boundary, and location of land parcels on the ground while the non-spatial data set including;
ownership, rights, area, and other relevant information are maintained in the land registers. Initial
investigation of this research shows that the existing cadastral maps and land registers in Pakistan do not
provide accurate information about land parcels and cannot be used for making a cadastral database (Ali and
Nasir, 2010, Ali et al., 2010). There is a need to update all this cadastral data so that up-to-date cadastral
information can be made available to the public.

The theoretical and practical developments in technologies such as different remote sensing satellite images
and geographical information systems (GIS) including database management concepts can improve the
quality, cost effectiveness, performance and maintainability of LASs (Aleksic et al., 2005). The adoption of
these technologies provides enormous opportunities to share land related information in a more easy way
than the old fashioned technologies/methods in which the information is managed and shared through
manual records and procedures. The Faa (1995) stresses the selection of an appropriate technology for
mapping and maintaining geometrical cadastral information within the strategic objectives. This can really
reduce the chance of duplication in data creation and updating for better performance of the organisations
dealing with land information and management.

On technical process side, the existing method for acquiring cadastral information and parcel boundaries
surveying in Pakistan is based on field surveying method that involves identification of boundary points using
measuring tapes and manual drawing cadastral maps without any standards. It is difficult to carry out these
field surveys in remote/mountainous areas due to harsh weather and other security constraints. Such method
also requires a large number of manpower and time, and the quality standard is difficult to achieve. This paper
considers only the technical part for cadastral mapping and surveying focusing on the situation in Pakistan.

The discipline-oriented technologies such as geodesy, surveying, photogrammetry, and cartography are
currently integrated into a new shape of an integrated approach aiming at effective use of technologies for
certain application domain. Such geo-information methodology is based on integration of global positioning
system (GPS), remote sensing (RS), and digital photography including existing maps or document for spatial
data acquisition (Tuladhar, 2005a). This paper is based on the experimental study for such a new integrated
approach in which the field survey by GPS data, RS imagery, and the existing cadastral maps are integrated for
acquiring and updating cadastral parcel boundary data in an efficient and effective manner. The concept of
participatory-GIS (PGIS) is employed to achieve the quality standards of cadastral data gathering with the
involvement of various stakeholders such as land owners and tenants. This study uses two study areas (hilly
and flat regions) in Pakistan to assess the effectiveness of this integrated approach for gathering boundary
data of cadastral land parcels.

In order to understand the need for an integrated approach, this paper firstly discusses the existing techniques
for cadastral boundary surveying by highlighting their advantages and shortcomings. The concept of an
integrated approach for acquiring cadastral information is then explained in the second part. The third part
explains the description of study areas and data sets used in this study. The fourth part explains the pre-
processing techniques carried out with RS imagery. The cadastral boundaries are delineated in the fifth part
using PGIS techniques. At the end, the results and conclusions are presented to evaluate the integrated
approach for gathering cadastral boundaries information.

Section snippets

Existing cadastral surveying techniques

Land Information System (LIS) consists of spatial and non-spatial data. Both these spatial data (such as parcel
boundary, shape, and location) and non-spatial data (such as ownership, rights, and area) are stored,
maintained, and accessed in the database environment. Spatial data is acquired through cadastral surveys
which are concerned with geometrical data of each land parcel. The results of cadastral surveys are isolated
plans of a parcel or a subdivision. Cadastral mapping goes a step …

An integrated approach
The existing cadastral surveying techniques as discussed in the above section are based on independent
theories and practices on surveying, photogrammetry and remote sensing. Since all these theories are
developed and implemented in an independent manner, they are not able to acquire data efficiently at the
required level of accuracy with low cost specifically for the cadastral purposes (Konecny, 2002). There is a
need to integrate these different techniques for acquiring cadastral information

Study area
Two study areas namely Zormandi and Shalmani in Peshawar and Swabi districts of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
province of Pakistan were selected for this study to assess the effectiveness of this integrated approach. These
two areas were selected due to their distinct geographical features and land use patterns. Zormandi is a flat
terrain urban area where some part of the area is built-up and very dense and regular distribution of parcels is
available. Shalmani is a mountainous rural area where most

GCPs collection
GCPs were collected in both study areas using a hand held Garmin eTrex GPS navigation receiver. In Zormandi
area, 23 GCPs were collected while 12 GCPs were collected in Shalmani area. All GCPs were collected in
absolute positioning mode. These GCPs were selected in such a way that their distribution is made equally on
 the entire RS imagery so that the error must be distributed homogenously. The accuracy of these GCPs was
compared with 1:50,000 scale maps of these study areas which were the only 

Findings of the study

This study introduces an integrated approach for acquiring cadastral data and mapping parcel boundaries by
integrating GPS data, RS imagery, and existing cadastral maps through PGIS technique. The newly developed
approach was tested in both flat and mountainous areas using Garmin eTrex GPS navigation receiver, ortho-
rectified QuickBird images, and SPOT-5 stereopair data. The cadastral information were acquired and parcel
boundaries were digitised on soft copies of the RS imagery using on-screen 

Conclusions
The integrated approach an efficient tool for collecting cadastral information and surveying cadastral parcel
boundaries with less labour, time, and cost as compared to the old fashioned field surveying technique where
a large number of labour, time, and cost are required for collecting cadastral data. This approach integrates
GPS data, RS imagery, and existing cadastral maps through PGIS technique. The collection of ground control
points and ortho-rectification of RS imagery are the key

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