IT becomes clear that land grabbing is a complex problem with both historical injustices and current difficulties.
Land encroachments and acquisitions, which involve bribery and falsified documentation, are obviously illegal. Such methods have been used by land mafias in Hub, Balochistan, to take over land. These days, businessmen ask the government a straightforward question: Will they be protected? The effect of lawlessness on Pakistan’s economy is shocking when compared to the economic results of other nations in the region. The economic potential of the Hub Industrial Trading Estate (HITE) is currently being increasingly sucked away by extortionists. In the hub area, the land grab and bhatta (extortion) outbreak began a few years ago. The issue was first limited to a few specific localities, such as Sakran Road, but it has now spread to the industrial zone, including HITE and is now deemed “quite uncontrollable” by concerned authorities, such as the Lasbela Industrial Estate Development Authority (LIEDA).
Currently at Hub, land mafia groups are engaged in land-grabbing, frequently with the encouragement and support of politicians. Blackmailers target small business owners as well as large industrialists and factory owners. Investors now have no other option except to conduct business as usual or face expulsion. Many small gangs are also present, and they are all affiliated with one political party or another. Also, revenue officials are present in every district and it is their duty to ensure that property rights are not violated. Nonetheless, the phenomenon of land grabbing and breach of property rights in Hub is inconceivable without the complacency of the revenue and police officials.
A story as old as time itself, the legacy of land grabbing has profound historical roots at Hub and has changed throughout time. At Sakran Road, lands in the designated area have been unlawfully, dishonestly or unfairly stolen from their rightful owners and obtained through compulsion or without their informed permission due to the illicit network of land mafia, which is backed by political players and silent government.
Some of the characteristics of this land grab differ from other areas of Pakistan. Many of the true owners of the land located at Sakran Road, Hub before just complained and cried are fighting now to protect their rights. With the direct and indirect assistance of the police, revenue authorities, and the regulator, the local land mafia at Hub are engaged in extensive land grabbing and other illicit activities; citizens are being evicted from their properties by private armed individuals and local facilitators. The competent authorities never paid heed towards any concrete proceedings under the law and that the grabbers are depriving true land owners of their rights; it was asserted that the public functionaries and officials of the Authority are facilitating them in violating the rights of the citizens who were in possession of their ancestral properties.
Conflicts can be made worse by land grabs, particularly in areas with poor governance, as is the case in Hub, Balochistan, where there are many instances of land grabs due to corrupt and dysfunctional governments and administrations. Many of the real owners of the land on Sakran Road, who previously just grumbled and wept, are now battling to defend their rights. Huge land at Sakran road is taken away from true owners by the local Mafia irrespective of various Hon’ble Courts orders and to under patronage of land mafia, their facilitators built and settled their houses, make shifts shops, temporary huts etc.
The true owners and industrialists whenever approached administration to make their demands heard since have legal land titles and intended to ensure that land and usage rights are protected but unfortunately the revenue office and administration is heedless to prevent land grabbing and resolve existing conflicts in the area. Huge land was sold through forged mutation papers which already having no legal value and it’s in the knowledge of concerned officials too. The deplorable status of governance, demonstrably observed at the identified area, has raised paramount questions of public importance in the context of grave violations of fundamental rights. It is an example of how regulators and public functionaries are eager to bend the laws, mislead the courts, abuse and misconstrue orders passed during judicial proceedings.
Laws are enacted to protect citizens’ rights and maintain order, yet land grabbing continues to undermine both. Authorities must address complaints of illegal encroachments, obstruction of property rights and forged documentation through effective mechanisms of redress. In Hub, Balochistan, the complicity of officials and political backing for mafias have allowed violations to persist, leaving rightful owners dispossessed. Land grabbing is a hidden catastrophe with deep social, economic and legal consequences. Combating it requires more than reactive measures—it demands legal reforms, stronger institutions and a commitment to uphold property rights, ensuring justice and restoring public trust in governance.
—The writer is contributing columnist.
