ISLAMABAD – Expressing displeasure over the sluggish attitude of the Capital Development Authority (CDA), the Public Accounts Committee on Monday decided to write a letter to Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani for an early evacuation of CDA’s lands under illegal occupation.
The PAC, which met with Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan in the chair, expressed dissatisfaction over the role of CDA in getting its land evacuated from illegal occupants and decided to send recommendations to the prime minister for taking steps for speedy evacuation of illegally occupied land.CDA Chairman Imtiaz Inayat Ali told the committee that wrong reports were published in the media regarding illegal occupation of CDA’s land in Kurri village. “We had already taken action before publication of such reports in the media,” he told the committee.
He said Mullpur village was located adjacent to Bahara Kahu with the total area of 5,000 acres. “People were living there for the last 40 years and the entire land was owned by CDA. The people who erected barbed wires after flattening the land faced CDA’s action,” the chairman said. He said 2,000 kanals of government land was occupied by old settlers in the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT), which had been recovered. However, some 3,000 kanals are yet to be retrieved.
Ali said it was a fault of previous CDA administrations that allowed physical possession of the land despite giving away award money in 1963 against its acquisition.
“These settlers did not vacate the land at that time and continued expansion of residential areas to date,” he added.
He asked the government to release Rs 35 billion against the award of land in Sector I-17 to the government, else the CDA would de-notify the award, adding that the authority had already sent a summary to the prime minister to probe into the issue.
The PAC also reopened the case of issuance of 1,200 allotment letters by the CDA land director. The CDA chairman said the former lands director Waseem Shamshad issued the allotment letters and he kept the official seal at home for the purpose. He termed this a procedural violation of the CDA land by-laws.
Nisar directed Cabinet Division secretary that a top-level inquiry be conducted into the scam.
Wasim Shamshad was also produced before the PAC and he denied the charges against him. He said all the letters were issued by the land deputy director, not by him.
The Cabinet Division secretary told the committee that the issue of Sector I-17 was a serious one and the CDA should take an early decision on it. “The government cannot provide Rs 35 billion in the years to come to CDA,” he told the committee.
Nisar said this land was a trust of the nation and could only be allotted legally.
The PAC also expressed concern over the purchase of vehicles costing over Rs 11 million by former chairman Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) Lt Gen Shahzada Aalam without seeking prior permission from the Cabinet Division.
Aalam told the committee he had obtained post-facto sanction from the Cabinet Division. Audit officials told the committee that as many as seven laptops, four mobile phones and other equipment worth over Rs 2.1 million had been purchased against rules and regulations.
However, Alam said the telecom authority perhaps was the only autonomous body which contributed Rs 12 billion to Rs 17 billion to the national exchequer.
Nisar asked the former PTA chairman to respond to the allegations against him in writing and furnish the names of his personal staff members.
The newly-appointed Establishment secretary said autonomous bodies had their own rules and regulations and working conditions, adding that they had been working on having uniformity in laws of all these organisations. The PAC also took notice of the use official vehicle by former PTA DG Mazhar Qayyum after his retirement and the non registration of FIR against him despite PAC’s directives.
