Bureaucrats plot for plots

It was learnt on Tuesday that many senior bureaucrats have increased lobbying efforts to get plots allotted during the caretaker set-up’s limited life, and are pressuring the Capital Development Authority (CDA)’s higher officials for this as the Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz (PML-N) leadership has hinted that they would end the special allotment scheme after coming to power.

The scheme was introduced by former President Pervez Musharraf and if the Sharifs abrogate it, around 100 Grade-22 officers may lose the allotments of one kanal plots.

According to Housing and Works Ministry sources, former Prime Minister Shoukat Aziz had approved a special allotment scheme for Grade-22 officers on the basis of the Interior Ministry’s summary. According to the scheme, all federal secretaries would get a plot in addition to the one allotted by the Federal Government Employees Housing Foundation.

Sources revealed that the scheme was modified in 2008, after which all grade-22 CSS officers were declared eligible for the plots. The foundation allotted one-kanal plots to 236 officers in Sectors D-12, G-13 and I-8 and some non-CSS officers were also allotted plots. After that the foundation declined allotments to the Grade-22 officers saying that they did not have any plots remaining in any sector, but the former Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf approved 400 kanals land for the officers in Zone-IV, where 200 plots were to be developed.

The Public Accounts Committee had also sent a summary on this matter to the former prime minister, suggesting that the special scheme should be abolished for being discriminatory. Further, a PML-N parliamentarian has also tabled a bill to end the special quota in government housing schemes.

According to sources, the legal position of the special plots scheme was not clear and the upcoming prime minister would decide the matter.