As a result of the substantive intervention made by the Punjab Overseas Pakistanis Commission (OPC), as many as 94 kanals of precious commercial and residential land has been successfully retrieved from squatters in the Overseas Pakistanis Foundation (OPF) housing scheme, Lahore.
OPF, after retrieval of the land, has started construction of a boundary wall to protect against encroachments.
According to OPC Vice Chairperson Shaheen Khalid Butt, the OPF Lahore Regional Office filed a complaint with the OPC that some of its land in the OPF housing scheme had been illegally occupied for quite a while and that they were unable to evict the squatters despite their efforts.
These occupants have demolished the OPF boundary and had also been constantly threatening the OPF staff. The OPC VC said that a special team headed by Director (Legal) Raja Muhammad Zubair was constituted to have the property vacated, and with the help of police authorities, the occupied land was retrieved successfully.
Shaheen Khalid Butt further said that the occupants posed severe resistance and even opened fire. An FIR has been registered against seven unknown culprits involved in the firing incident.
He also said that the OPC is vigorously pursuing the issues of overseas Pakistanis and that so far 50% of the received complaints have been settled.
