Financial irregularities worth millions of rupees were committed in the construction of Emigration Tower, officials of the Ministry of Overseas told the National Assembly Standing Committee on Overseas Pakistanis on Monday.
The committee that met with Muhammad Jadam Mangrio in the chair was told by the ministry secretary that the Bureau of Immigration had been authorised to build a tower on the land of Overseas Pakistanis Foundation in Islamabad, but it delayed the project and later added Rs 350 million to the estimated cost without an approval of the ministry. He said a committee had been constituted to probe into the irregularities.
The secretary added that the Bureau of Immigration had taken the land on lease for 49 years.
He said that the ministry had released Rs 555 million to the bureau so far.
Taking notice of the of the Overseas Housing society in Zone-5 of Islamabad, the committee asked the ministry to provide the lists of the applicants for the plots and the total amount collected so far by the housing society.
The committee was informed by the officials that the land for the housing society had been purchased in 1996, but it had not been completely developed owing to litigation over the land.
The secretary said 60 percent of the development work had been carried out, but could not be completed fully as the matter was in court.
He said Rs 880 million had been collected, while Rs 1 billion were spent on development.
The committee was further told that around 0.2 million people were sent abroad for employment every year and Rs 2,000 is taken from each of the person seeking employment abroad as insurance fee and 0.2 million were given to the affected family in case of death of an overseas employee.
MNA Shahnaz Sheikh said the ministry should increase the compensation figure from Rs 0.2 million to Rs 0.5 million for those who sought employment abroad, as the country was facing acute shortage of employment opportunities.
