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Guide

I own farm land in Pakistan
and someone else is working it

Farm land is the property most often left to itself. A relative or a tenant works it, money comes or does not come, and the record is not looked at for years. This page shows what to check, what you are owed, and how an advocate keeps the land yours.

Where this applies This page covers agricultural land in Pakistan owned by someone who lives abroad. The land record and its offices differ from province to province. In Punjab the record is online; elsewhere it is held locally.

A golden wheat field ready for harvest
Photograph: Riaz Ahmad Khan, Multan

What this is about

Two things go wrong with farm land owned from abroad. The first is on the ground: the person working it stops paying, treats it as their own, or lets someone else onto it. The second is on paper: an entry appears in the record that you never agreed to, a sale, a mortgage, a change of share. The second is the dangerous one, because it can be done quietly and it changes who owns the land.

The answer to both starts with the same thing: the record extract, read today, by someone who knows what the entries mean. Everything else, notices, a case, an agreement, follows from what it says.

What has to be in place

What has to be clear before anyone acts.

  1. What the record says about the land today: the owner, the shares, and any entry you did not make.

  2. Who is on the land, on what agreement, written or spoken, and what has been paid.

  3. An advocate in the district where the land is, with a power of attorney from you.

Note Your advocate confirms which of these apply to your case.

The documents you will be asked for

The papers an advocate asks for first.

  • The record extract, obtained recently, and any older extract you have.
  • Any agreement with the person working the land, and a record of what was paid and when.
  • Your identity document, and the power of attorney.

How an advocate helps from where you are

What an advocate does from the district.

  • Obtains the record and tells you what it holds today, entry by entry.
  • Sends the notice the law requires to a tenant who does not pay or will not leave.
  • Has a wrong entry corrected, or challenged in the court that hears land matters.
  • Writes a proper agreement with whoever works the land, so that the next dispute is smaller.

What to ask before you agree

  • What does the record hold today, and is there any entry I did not make?
  • What notice does the law require before a tenant can be made to leave?
  • Have you handled land in this district before?
  • What do you need from me, and by when?
  • What is your fee, and what is not included in it?

More in Land and property

Next in this group Someone is sitting on our land Pakistan has a court that hears one kind of case only: property disputes where one of the parties lives abroad. Much of it can be done without travelling. Read this next

Also relevant

All of Land and property on one page

Words you will meet

land record
The official record of who owns and who cultivates each field.
tenant
The person who cultivates land that belongs to someone else.
mutation
An entry that changes the record. One you did not make is the first thing to check.

Sources

Official pages read on 11 September 2026. The page says only what these say, and what an advocate does; nothing specific to your case.

Checked

11 September 2026

Pakistan. Sources listed at the end of the page.

Find an advocate who handles this

The register shows who acts on a power of attorney, who has filed from abroad, and in which city.