The civic management has been told to cancel the lease of the 10-kanal plot allotted to the roots millennium school located at sector H-8, a plot which was originally allotted for charity purpose to Pakistan Foreign Office Women Association (PFOWA).
The plot was allotted to PFOWA on the directions of then Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in 1996. However, additional secretary Capital Administration and Development Division (CA&DD) in the senate standing committee in December last year claimed that in 2014, on the orders from the Prime Minister’s Office and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, CDA allowed the charity organisation to establish a school on the plot under a joint venture.
Senate standing committee on cabinet, on Tuesday, after discussing the said ‘illegal’ joint venture by PFOWA and roots management for 16 months, finally, directed the Capital Development Authority (CDA) to cancel the lease of the said plot.
Committee met under the chairmanship of Senator Talha Mehmood. Chairman committee directed CDA to cancel the plot for charity, as the plot had been allotted to PFOWA. Committee agreed that PFOWA violated the agreement by inking another agreement with Roots Millennium School.
“Charity plots are meant for charity, not for commercial purposes” said Senator Mir Muhammad Badini
Talha Mehmood said that committee did its best by allotting the plot for charity purpose, but PFOWA did not pay any heed. He said that they reached on the conclusion that plot should be immediately canceled. He directed chairman CDA to cancel the plot allocation and submit a compliance report to committee within a week.
CDA chairman said that civic agency had no issues in cancellation of plot, but he would have to check because this plot was allotted on the directive of Prime Minister in 1996. “I have to check whether prime minister’s approval is required for cancellation. I think this process will take some time,” said Mayor cum Chairman CDA, Sheikh Anser Aziz.
A series of talk shows were aired by a senior journalist in January last year in which he called ‘illegal acts of a non-governmental organisation PFOWA’ had sown seeds of discord between the Foreign Office (FO) and the Capital Development Authority (CDA).
The PFOWA is a registered welfare and charity organisation that has a long history of raising funds and pursuing many charitable activities on purely voluntary basis.
In 1996, PFOWA was allocated a plot by the then prime minister Benazir Bhutto. The association was supposed to pay a sum of Rs 13.5 million, but due to the non-payment, the allocation was suspended for 10 years till 2005.
The association however could not actualise the purpose it had got the plot for – i.e. education for needy children – since it lacked the funds to build the infrastructure and expertise required to run a school of a greater size than its own.
Initially, the National Rural Support Programme (NRSP) was roped in to initiate the project, but the NRSP soon pulled out of the joint venture, realising the fact that the amount required to undertake the project was unbearable.
Later, the PFOWA invited an expression of interest (EOI) from Preston University, Beaconhouse School System, The City School, Bloomfield Hall Schools, Roots Millennium Schools, and Roots International. It finally picked Roots Millennium Schools which emerged as the most competitive of all and inked an agreement with it on December 23, 2014.
Under the deal, Roots Millennium Schools spent Rs500 million on the building of the school, while the children of FO employees would be given 50 per cent discount in addition to other perks. Furthermore, the school would provide a vocational training programme for the widows of FO employees while three per cent funds from the school’s annual revenue would be spent on many social causes by the PFOWA.
It was decided between both parties that the lease would stay in the name of PFOWA, while Roots Millennium Schools would run, manage and build the school under the agreed terms and conditions.
Meanwhile, the senate standing committee held a hearing on the issue in January 2016 and after lending ear to both the CDA chairman and Foreign Office, upheld the FO’s stance and resolved the issue.
