How to Purchase Property (Part 2)

Every patwari keeps a register: on such-and-such date the fard-e-bai was issued, on such-and-such date the registration was passed, the sub-registrar attended, on such-and-such date it was sent to the tehsildar for registration, on such-and-such date a public meeting was held, on such-and-such date this registration's mutation was passed, in the patwar copy, the government copy, on such-and-such date the patwari issued the fard-e-bai and duly notified it, on such-and-such date the registration was passed and received by the patwari, and on such-and-such date it was sent onward, on such-and-such date a public meeting was held, on such-and-such date this mutation was passed. These registers are nothing special, they're just ordinary registers, made to match each other, and they just get matched up, nothing more. You don't even know what the patwar copy is, so you won't check it. You don't know what the government fard is, so you won't check it. You don't know what the patwar copy is, so you don't know who holds that register. You don't know what the government fard is, so you don't know where the register is kept. They just do it sitting in the office, claiming a meeting was held, if you had gone to the site, well, sir, this happened, all these people appeared, this happened, thumbprints and signatures were taken, along with that formal matters happen, everything, but you should trace the actual physical chain: from whoever you're buying from, go to whoever they bought from, go to whoever they bought from, go to whoever they bought from, until you're fully satisfied that whoever's left, their forefathers are no longer alive, and there's no living claimant. If there is a claimant, he lives right there with that property and says, sir, yes, our forefathers sold it long ago, without even knowing when it was sold. Identifying property at the revenue department is very difficult. I gave a lecture describing the whole hierarchy: from Pakistan down to the province, province down to division, division down to district, district down to tehsil, tehsil down to khewat, khewat down to khatuni, khatuni down to khasra, khasra further down, I gave you all this detail. Value these things, look into these things, now what's the problem here? Self-medication may be very necessary for everyone, but no one avoids self-medication, 90 percent of people. My head is aching, I don't know why my head is aching, the doctor knows, but I took a Panadol. My knees hurt, I don't know why, the doctor knows, but I said, so-and-so's knee was hurting, he took Diclofenac, so I took Diclofenac too. This same self-medication approach applies to your property buying and selling. You get something drafted by a matriculate-level deed-writer, that's the arrangement made when buying property from the other party. To save your money, you don't go to any expert. However experienced a dispenser is, he can never be as good a physician or surgeon as an MBBS or FRCS doctor, he's just a dispenser, he can't compete with doctors, the whole village benefits from him, the whole village is satisfied with him, but when they die, they die because of that very dispenser. I went to the dispenser, I felt better, I came back, very good, if it didn't work, if the medicine caused a reaction, giving knee medicine for a headache, giving headache medicine for a knee problem, caused a reaction, the patient suffers the loss. The same problems exist with property. Please, in whatever area you live, do a survey of that area. Survey it and find the relevant person, a law graduate who understands property matters, who has experience, go to him. That deed-writer who takes five thousand rupees and writes your sale agreement, because of which you end up having to knock on the court's door, instead pay ten or fifteen thousand and have a lawyer draft it, one who writes it with the Supreme Court in mind, that if any dispute arises, we'll win all the way to the Supreme Court. Our matters will proceed all the way to the Supreme Court. A deed-writer will say, sir, whatever documents you gave me, I wrote it up accordingly. A lawyer will say, get these documents verified. In Pakistan, 80 percent of litigation happens because people say, why pay lawyers' fees? Then when that same case goes bad, they're willing to pay lawyers lakhs of rupees, they're afraid to give thousands but become willing to give lakhs. So my request to you is that whenever you buy any property, keep in mind the things I've told you. These things take years to learn from a book, which I've told you in a few minutes.