Chairman Senate Mian Raza Rabbani on Tuesday referred the issue of proposed conversion of 1400 acre land of National Agricultural Research Centre by the CDA into residential and commercial plots to the concerned standing committee for deliberation, and asked for a report back to the House in a month.
Earlier, winding up debate on a motion moved by Mushahid Hussain Syed, Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Shaikh Aftab Ahmad also requested the chair to refer the issue to the standing committee.
He said the committee members should also personally visit the site and determine whether the land was used for agricultural and research purpose. The committee should give its recommendations to the House on this matter, he added.
He also conceded that the land should not be used for plotting rather it should be utilised for setting up a university, medical college or any other such institution to benefit ordinary citizens.
He said it was a precious and prime land and as per CDA report and NARC was using the land for residential purposes rather than agricultural research. A petrol pump was also set up there.
Speaking on the motion, Mushahid Hussain Syed said the then Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto had approved the summary to hand over the land to NARC for research purposes. However, the CDA has sent a summary to the PM to convert the land for plotting to earn money.
He claimed that the summary itself was a violation of original master plan as the area falls in zone-IV, which is specified, for research and education activities.
He said as per the summary the area would be developed by third party and Chief Executive Officer would be from private sector. He said NARC is a national asset and residential plots were being developed for rich people rather for poor strata of the society.
He said that a proper inquiry should be conducted into the matter to see who was behind the initiation of the summary. He also requested to the government to protect Islamabad from land mafia.
Saeed Ghani, while endorsing the view point of Mushahid Hussain, demanded that the matter be referred to the standing committee for further deliberation.
Azam Swati said that agriculture contributes 41 per cent of the total GDP and accounts for 45 per cent of employment. However, land mafia also wants to grab the land for commercial activity.
Farhatullah Babar said that owing to the research of NARC, we are able to produce sufficient wheat and other crops. He said such research institutes were also set up in capital of India and Bangladesh and dislodging such research council would have negative effect on the research activities in agriculture sector.
He said the land was given to NARC on a 90 years lease and under the policy after 40 years, NARC sent a summery to the CDA for the renewal of the lease. However, the CDA instead of renewing the lease sent a summery to PM to use the land for residential purposes.
Tahir Hussain, Saeed Mandokhel, Sirajul Haq and Hamza also said that Pakistan is an agricultural country and 70 per cent of the population is attached to this sector.
They stressed the need for agricultural research to meet the future challenges and urged to refer the matter to committee for detailed discussion.
