ISLAMABAD: Some powerful ministers are not only violating laws pertaining to requisition of official residences but have also defied the directions of Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani and Deputy Speaker Faisal Karim Kundi to vacate suites in the Parliament Lodges.
Following a row over residential suites between PML-Q MNA Marvi Memon and Senator Humayun Khan last month, Deputy Speaker Kundi wrote a letter to the premier, asking the latter to direct those ministers to vacate suites in the Parliament Lodges who had got bungalows allotted in the Ministers’ Enclave.
Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani ordered JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman and five federal ministers, Ahmed Mukhtar, Azam Swati, Hamid Ullah Jan Afridi, Ayatollah Durrani and Rana Farooq Saeed to vacate the additional accommodations of the Parliament Lodges.
Federal Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira vacated the suite in the Parliament Lodges on November 16, but the other ministers are still reluctant to do so.
The staff of the parliament house and Capital Development Authority (CDA) along with the ICT police launched a joint operation to evacuate the Parliament Lodges from illegal occupants last month and ejected several illegal occupants from the lobbies but failed to dislodge the mighty ministers.
Under the supervision of a CDA magistrate, the staff of the parliament house and the federal police started an operation to evict about 200 people who were living illegally in the lobbies and servant quarters but the ministers did not surrender residential suites.
When contacted, Mian Muhammad, director, Parliament Lodges, said his directorate had successfully dislodged illegal occupants from the lobbies. He said the CDA had not been directed to eject the ministers from the residential suites.
