Destroying Agricultural land

[Bouncer]

Agree... but i wish we would do more before that time comes... government needs to put in place some rules and regulations e.g. encouraging high rises, increasing taxes on houses bigger than 1 or 2 canals substantially and last but not the least the trend to safe guard your money by buying a plot and leaving it aside for decades need to be discouraged. simple way to do is that since all transactions are done via C-NIC hence every time a family/khandan no (comprising of a person, his spouse and children before marriage... after marriage Id card no remains same but family/khandan no changes) buys a 6th or 7th plot then taxes and transfer fee should increase slightly, even more on 8th or 9th plot and double from 10th to 12th plot. This would have double pronged effect as one hand we would discourage investments in plots and other hand it would increase investment in saving schemes, stocks, bonds etc...
In short some one higher up will have to think out of the box.

Personally, I am not a fan of too much government interference and controls. As long has properties are registered correctly and people pay due taxes (which most don't these days), I am fine with people owning multiple properties. Economics should be the driving force.

Like Karachi, I think in a decade or so we'll see rapid increase in number of high rise residential buildings in Lahore, Islamabad and other cities, provided that our economy grows at a reasonable rate.

 

[Shabaz Sharif]

so expats are not having 4-5 properties worth kanal or more each? That is fine? You talk about equality but suddenly get blinded every now and then?

I dont just mean expats but anyone who basically has 6-10 properties but lives outside the country ...why take up land that other people can use?

and then these people dont even pay their tax

Punjab urban population have increased to 40% as of this year. Will pass 50% by 2020 or 2025. Which mean millions of rural people are moving to cities. Expats investment in Pakistan only help Pakistan in the long run.

 

[Dubious]

Punjab urban population have increased to 40% as of this year. Will pass 50% by 2020 or 2025. Which mean millions of rural people are moving to cities. Expats investment in Pakistan only help Pakistan in the long run.

yes but what is the use of such investments when the plot they bought is empty for say 20 yrs? Maybe let them invest but ask govt to rent it and give it for farming...

 

[arushbhai]

Agreed. Things are specially bad around Lahore. A huge portion of agricultural land has been converted into housing societies. Lahore and other major cities in punjab need to start introducing Condo living.

 

[AsifIjaz]

Other than the government both the residents within Pakistan as well as the Overseas Pakistani's are to be blamed for the mess. I know a few people who own more than 60-70 plots in DHA. During the property boom in 2010-11 i saw people buying dozens of plots in a single go. Just go around berki road and bedian road and you see people building lawn on 8 to 10 acres of land and then visiting once or twice a month....this is our desi way to show off and boast about our different ventures... there is definitely a need for regulating this idiocity.

 

[Fracker]

this trend is running from sometime, not only Punjab, even in KPK, the Pakistan's most fertilized land was converted into shops, petrol pump, plazas, but one thing I want to point out. When there is trend of land converting into residential & commercial, there is another trend which is eating Pakistani land even faster then any of this city growth. More people are migrating from small cities to large cities, and farmers are giving up the acres of land. Still the land around Jhang, multan , bhawalpur whole area is trend towards people migration. also many small areas around Jehlum, Sialkot is also fueled for same. miles miles area in Sindh is left for sam-o-thor, and Pakistan is losing it's Agricultural land even faster.

City Governments has to put binderies around the cities, and allow small villages to grow. And probably help farmers to increase profitable crops. Otherwise, Pakistan might get converted into deserted land.

 

[Leader]

Within the last few years i have had the opportunity to visit the so called rural areas around Lahore, Gujranwala and recently Qasoor as well... the reason was that we were searching for a good agricultural land... it is shocking to see that most of the agricultural land in lahore district has now been converted into housing schemes and/or farm houses... right from Barki road, Bedian Road, Lahore sharaqpur road, ferozepur road to even multan road all areas have been bought and are now being sold as plots... All of Baharia town, DHA phase 4, 5, 6 ,7 ,8, 9, 10, Imperail garden/Paragon city, GT farm houses, New Lahore city, Motor way city, DHA GWA, Jati umra, LDA avenue 1/2, Khayaban-e-Ameen, Colonies on Raiwand road, EME and colonies on canal were lush green and fertile land till a decade back. To add fuel to the fire the LDA is launching the Ravi river front project which will again destroy thousands to million of acres if not more. Government is also or has already allowed the setting up of power plants on fertile land (sahiwal, Nandipur, Nishat). This is the scene around Lahore only and i can give similar examples for alot other districts as well.
How and from where are we going to feed the masses... the price of basic commodities is increasing at a fast pace and this ostrich approach shows the lack of character and far sightedness on part of our leaders.. even the recently announced initiatives to spare the class A land is too little too late. there needs to be a total ban of making anything on class A and B lands be it a power plant, industry, controlled shed or even shops etc... we have so much of barren/water logged or saline land that it would and should be sufficient for such activities. I wish someone would take notice before its too late

you are absolutely right.. lahore is expanding without proper planning with respect to food supplies... its going to be another disaster..

I have seen the documents made in 1960s, where Lahore was planned by LDA, the planning suggested that no house be smaller than 5 marla, and no street without a green belt..and that general rule was to apply on whole of the Lahore, and suburban areas were to be priced high for farm houses and agriculture purposes and would not be converted into other type of land..

this model was to be followed by the rest of the cities... Alas, nothing went as planned on papers, this plan was never implemented...