Sindh Mein Janglat Ki 3 Kharab Se Zayed Maliyat Ki Zameen Vagzar... DG NAB Karachi Ki Ahem Guftagu
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00:00Welcome back after the break.
00:02Viewers, corruption has become a common thing in the country,
00:07which we are not worried about.
00:10But the corruption that ruins the lives of future generations,
00:15that is the worst corruption.
00:16And against that corruption, it is very important to raise our voice.
00:20There is no other way.
00:22And the corruption I am talking about, you must have seen in the last two days,
00:25in the mountainous areas of Pakistan, there was a video of cutting down forests.
00:30It was a very disheartening video,
00:32because at one point in the PTI government, there was a billion tree tsunami.
00:35After that, the rest of the governments disappeared.
00:38The greenery campaign is given a lot of attention.
00:42The Sindh government also drove the mangrove replantation.
00:45So looking at all that situation,
00:47it is certain that Pakistan's forest cover is already low.
00:51And it has to be increased.
00:52And why am I saying that Pakistan's forest cover is low?
00:55Because if you look at the surrounding areas,
00:59in Pakistan's neighbouring areas,
01:01Bangladesh's forest cover is 11%.
01:04Their total cover is 11% jungles.
01:08If we look at Iran,
01:10then 15% of their total cover is jungles.
01:14If we look at India,
01:16then 23% of their cover is jungles.
01:20Let's look at Pakistan.
01:21In Pakistan, only 4.8% of the forest cover is jungles.
01:26And it has conifers and other types of jungles.
01:30Only one neighbour is behind us in jungles,
01:33and that is Afghanistan.
01:34Now if we have to compare with Afghanistan,
01:37then it will be a very sad thing.
01:38In Pakistan, there are 0.04 hectares of jungles per capita.
01:46Whereas on a global scale,
01:49the total cover of jungles is 1.0.
01:54That is, 1 hectare is the cover of jungles.
01:57In Pakistan, the total cover of jungles is 4.2 million hectares,
02:01which is 4.8% of the total cover,
02:04which I have already told you.
02:05From 2001 to 2023,
02:08almost 10 hectares of jungles were cut off in Pakistan.
02:12We were deprived of that.
02:13And by the year 2000, 1% of jungles were cut off.
02:17Keep in mind that this is a continuous decline from 2000 to now.
02:221% reduction is alarming.
02:25Due to global warming,
02:27Pakistan is one of the five major countries affected by climate change.
02:32And not only this,
02:34according to the report of the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics,
02:38Pakistan has been deprived of 20% of jungles in the past 24 years.
02:45That is, in the past 24 years,
02:47jungles have been proven to be deadly for Pakistan.
02:51And we see its videos again and again.
02:53In such a situation,
02:54as I said,
02:55the corruption that destroys the generations,
02:57that corruption should not be considered at all.
03:00So recently, there has been a good development.
03:03NAB and the Sindh government have acquired 3,500 kharab rupees worth of valued land,
03:10which belonged to the forest,
03:12which had been seized by corruption.
03:16Some of the land is in Larkana,
03:18some in Sukkur,
03:19some in Benazirabad,
03:21some in Thatta,
03:22some in Hyderabad,
03:24some in Ghatab.
03:25These were the lands of the jungles.
03:27They had been seized.
03:28We are very fond of taking plots and all these things.
03:31So unfortunately, this was the situation.
03:33Mr. Javed Akbar Riaz is with us.
03:35He is the NAB of Karachi.
03:37Mr. Javed, thank you very much for joining me in the program.
03:39It's a very big feat.
03:413,500 kharab rupees.
03:44There are so many zeros in kharab,
03:47and no one must have even seen kharab.
03:49So much value that you have made the land of the forest.
03:53Tell me, who were these people?
03:54Who were at the doorstep of destroying our future generations?
03:57The land of the jungles,
03:58the land that is dedicated to the jungles,
04:00was it for their personal gains?
04:06Thank you very much.
04:07Thank you very much for inviting me to this program.
04:09I would like to say that the Supreme Court of Pakistan
04:12gave a specific direction to the Government of Pakistan in 2018
04:16that the forest, which is our natural resource
04:20and a very valuable asset,
04:23should be identified,
04:25where their lands are,
04:27should be secured,
04:29and to further develop it.
04:31It was a very comprehensive judgment by the Supreme Court of Pakistan.
04:34Subsequently, the High Court of Sindh,
04:37the Sakhar Bank,
04:40gave a very specific direction to the Government of Sindh in 2020.
04:45And along with that,
04:46the NAB was given the direction
04:48to start different inquiries and investigations.
04:51And such people,
04:52who are illegal allotment of the forest land,
04:55encroachment,
04:57or related to the forest land,
05:00or are involved in any kind of irregularity or crime,
05:03proper inquiries and investigations should be started against them.
05:07The NAB formally started this campaign.
05:13And I would like to say that
05:15our present leadership,
05:16Chairman NAB,
05:17and especially the team of the Headquarters,
05:19they came up with a strategy,
05:21that together with the Government of Pakistan and the Government of Sindh,
05:25in their area,
05:27where there is the Forest Department,
05:28Land Utilization Department,
05:30and apart from this,
05:32there is the Senior Board,
05:33Member Board of Revenue,
05:35together with all of them,
05:37this land,
05:39which is our precious asset,
05:41should be properly secured.
05:43And for that,
05:45we had a very detailed collaboration with them.
05:48And I would like to say here,
05:50that all the offices of the Government of Sindh,
05:52who were relevant,
05:53especially the Chief Secretary,
05:55Javed Sahib, I am sorry I am cutting you short.
05:57But who were involved in this?
05:59Were there any government officials involved in this?
06:01Were there any people from the government offices involved in this?
06:04This land cannot be distributed like this, right?
06:06This is the forest land.
06:07This land belongs to our future generations.
06:09How did it go from here to there?
06:13Look, I would like to request,
06:14that there are many issues in this.
06:16This pre-partition,
06:18as you know,
06:19the Forest Act was made in 1924.
06:21A lot of minor amendments have been made to it,
06:24along with VAT.
06:25But primarily,
06:26it is the same law
06:27which is governing this entire department.
06:30That has been outdated.
06:32Recently,
06:33the collaboration which I mentioned,
06:35which is going on between the Naib and the offices here,
06:37in that,
06:38we have also impressed the Government of Sindh,
06:41that kindly bring a new law,
06:43the draft of which has already been prepared.
06:46And I hope that,
06:47God willing,
06:48the Chief Minister,
06:50if he is following this,
06:52God willing,
06:53in a short while,
06:54you will also see the new Forest Act.
06:58So this,
06:59basically,
07:00you will understand,
07:01the weaknesses of the Forest Department,
07:04their mismanagement,
07:06and their lack of resources,
07:08probably because of that,
07:10wherever there was forest land,
07:12they were not able to secure it properly.
07:14And the local people there,
07:16they started using that land.
07:19In this,
07:20a lot of people from the Revenue Department will also be included.
07:24A lot of people from the Forest Department will also be included.
07:27Whose,
07:28I think,
07:29due to lack of proper supervision,
07:31this kind of irregularity started to emerge.
07:35And the campaign that is going on now,
07:37in that,
07:38all these institutions,
07:39together,
07:40decided that,
07:41yes,
07:42this is a precious asset,
07:43we have to bring it back.
07:44And because of that,
07:45all this land,
07:463.6 trillion rupees,
07:50whose cost is approximately,
07:52by the grace of God,
07:53it was returned.
07:54And it was secured.
07:56Obviously,
07:57this is a big feat.
07:59But,
08:00tell us,
08:01in the coming times,
08:02will we see any other forest land like this,
08:05being maintained?
08:07Are there any other such things,
08:09which have been seized,
08:10which have to be brought back,
08:12where there is corruption,
08:13or some other method,
08:14or,
08:15you can say,
08:16lack of supervision,
08:17or whatever name you want to give it.
08:19Is there any such land?
08:22Yes,
08:23absolutely.
08:24Look,
08:25a few,
08:26a few portions of the land,
08:29some are in the raw area,
08:31some are included in other areas,
08:33whose survey,
08:34and whose demarcation is still remaining,
08:36is ongoing.
08:37Inshallah,
08:38we have set a further target of three months.
08:40With the government of Sindh,
08:42our regular collaboration is going on.
08:45And Inshallah,
08:46that little land which is remaining,
08:48if at the end of this project,
08:51which we will call a project,
08:53at the end of this project,
08:55approximately 4 trillion rupees of land,
08:58Inshallah,
08:59will be secured by the forest department.
09:01Interesting.
09:02Recently,
09:03we had a very detailed meeting with the CM of Sindh.
09:07And in that,
09:08the irregularities in the raw area,
09:12about that also,
09:13we showed a lot of interest.
09:15And Inshallah,
09:16after securing this forest land,
09:18our next project will be,
09:20we will also try,
09:21that in the raw land,
09:22if there are any illegalities,
09:24or any other issues,
09:25they should be on these lines.
09:27This successful model,
09:29which we have recently concluded,
09:31we will try,
09:32that the Naib,
09:33and like this,
09:34other village heads,
09:35together,
09:36should collaborate,
09:37and the natural resources,
09:41should be brought back.
09:42Best of luck with that.
09:43Because this is the resource of our future generations,
09:45we also have no right over it.
09:47Thank you very much for joining me in the program.