Out in the Open – Land mafia occupies Punjab school land

LAHORE: A large portion of lands belonging to schools across Punjab have been illegally occupied by the land mafia while the Punjab government’s School Education Department is under pressure to vacate the occupied lands, Pakistan Today has learnt.
The lands have been occupied by influential people from decades in almost all districts of the province including Lahore, Sheikhupura, Gujranwala, Mianwali, Kasur, Rahim Yar Khan and Faisalabad and due to influential personalities and land grabbers, the school education department seemed helpless.
According to a Punjab School Education Department official, lands of around 350 schools have been occupied by the mafia and at various places, the illegal occupants have the support of the concern executive district officers (EDO) education.
He said that the EDOs were getting monthly commissions from the occupants and disclosed that the Lahore EDO education was also getting monthly commissions, as eight school lands in Lahore were occupied. The official said that around 500 cases of occupying land illegally were reported in Punjab and the department had succeeded in getting 150 school lands vacated from the mafia but around 350 school lands were still occupied by the mafia.
According to a department senior official, the buildings and lands of around 350 schools in Punjab were fully or partially occupied by the land mafia, which had the backing of the concerned education EDOs and local politicians. Another senior official revealed that buildings and lands of several primary girls and boys schools were also occupied by influential land grabbers.
He said that after the monitoring department had sent details of the schools to the provincial and district governments last year, authorities had succeeded in vacating 150 schools from illegal occupants. The official said that in urban areas of Punjab, students were suffering due to illegal occupation and were attending classes in open grounds while in rural areas, classes were being held in nearby graveyards.
A monitoring department official told Pakistan Today that a special operation was launched to get the schools vacated from the mafias after involving the education EDOs but in most cases the EDOs were not cooperating with them. He alleged that Lahore EDO Education Dr Muhammad Arshad was also getting monthly commissions from the land mafia and the department is helpless in this regard, as the EDO had good contacts with the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).
The official said that influential persons had constructed shops and houses on school lands and the government had launched an offensive to vacate all such lands. A school teacher at Township said also alleged that the Lahore EDO was hands in glove with the land mafia and it was beyond imagination that the Punjab government had allowed the EDOs to get monthly commissions. He said that the Punjab government was claiming that it was doing a lot for promoting education but at many places students did not have proper buildings to study.
The official said that the Punjab government should investigate the issue but it was not interested in ending corruption and said that the Lahore EDO education was the best example in this regard. Lahore EDO Education Dr Arshad rejected all allegations against him and termed it propaganda.