KARACHI – Over 2,500 acres have been leased by the Auqaf Department since 2007 but no price floor was set during the tender process, allowing bidders to rent land for peanuts, admitted Auqaf Minister Abdul Haseeb Khan on Monday during the Sindh Assembly (SA) session.
Three departments – Auqaf, Antiquities and Tourism – were under the scanner at Monday’s session, with most questions directed at the Auqaf department. One of the queries, raised by Heer Ismail Soho, pertained to departmental land in District Thatta that had been leased.
In his written reply, Khan had submitted that 1,159 acres were leased in the Muhammad Rahim Shah Sujawal Waqf, with lease price as low as Rs 172 per acre. As many as 1,347 acres were leased in Waqf Rahim-2 Sujawal; the lowest lease price was Rs 300 per acre.
SA members could not digest the inexpensive rates at which agricultural land was leased, with many questioning the minister over the precise modalities of the bidding process. Khan then admitted that the Auqaf Department had not set a price floor for leasing land, merely accepting the highest price offered.
More eyebrows were raised when he said that all, and not simply the needy and destitute, were invited to the “open bidding” process, and that there were no limitations on how much land a particular family could lease.
The minister lamented, however, that “some people” agreed among themselves the highest price they would offer, and thus, the bidding process became skewed in their favour.
Another legislator commented that procedure was to set the selling price for one year as the price at which the bidding started. “We will follow this practice in future,” Khan responded.
More questions were raised when Khan was grilled about over 53 acres of department land in Sukkur that had been leased to the Health Department for a period of 50 years to construct Ghulam Muhammad Mehar Medical College. Shaharyar Khan Mahar had posed the question, and as the minister explained, land was leased at Rs 100,000 per acre during the tenure of Arbab Ghulam Rahim.
While it was agreed with the private party to pay half the amount before the end of June 2006 and the rest in the next financial year, a man claiming to be the inheritor of the land moved the High Court against the deal. He subsequently won the litigation, and the Auqaf Department is now pursuing the matter in the Supreme Court, the minister said.
National People Party’s Arif Mustafa Jatoi asked whether the hospital – if its construction goes ahead as planned – will be demolished once the 50-year lease expires. “We’ll cross that bridge when we get there,” responded the minister. –
