Public land sales

Senate Select Committee on Less Developed Areas took up on Wednesday an alleged land scam. The case involves sale by the Punjab government of public lands worth 40 billion for mere 851 million. Two committee members, PML (Q)'s Senator Mohammad Ali Durrani and ANP's Haji Adeel, described the auction of 39 public properties in Bahawalpur, 200 acre a piece to certain individuals, as 'loot sale'.
The committee also expressed dissatisfaction over the manner in which a rest house was auctioned disregarding the suggestions of the relevant official, chief engineer of fisheries department, and questioned the government decision to sell the rest house for Rs 70 million whereas the market price, it reckoned, was above Rs 400 million. The committee rejected the Punjab government officials' stance on the issue, saying it would conduct a thorough probe into the privatisation of all these properties.
This is not the first case of its nature. There are several known mega scams involving public lands. Successive governments have been using them to bestow favours on friends and relatives as well as to buy political loyalties. What came to be known as the 'politics of plots' in the decade of the 90s, has continued to thrive in one form or another. Land grabs under official patronage is another common affliction. In fact, one of the causes of frequent outbreaks of violence in Karachi is disputes between powerful land mafias.
Much desirable as the present probe is, its focus should be on establishing whether or not the laid down rules and regulations were observed in the auction process. Two points are important in this respect. One, if the reserve price had any relevance to the market price; and second, that the auction took place in a transparent manner.
The market price needs to be determined with care taking into account the fact that quite often the quoted price is highly inflated vis-à-vis the actual selling and buying rates. As for the demands of transparency, the committee needs to check if all the requisite conditions were fulfilled to invite bids, ie, the auction was properly advertised, and the interested parties had ample time for participation.
It ought to be ensured also that the qualification for bidding was not tailored to suit certain chosen bidders. Considering that the Select Committee members most vocal in accusing the Punjab government of having committed irregularities are its opponents, it is imperative that the probe into the alleged 'loot sale' is conducted in a way that is seen as fair and impartial, and not an attempt to malign a political rival.