Out-of-turn allotments

The monsters of corruption and nepotism that walk tall in today's Pakistan have many faces, and the one that stands unmasked in the wake of the Supreme Court's order seeking expulsion of illegal occupants from the government accommodation in the federal capital is no less repulsive than the rest. How multi-layered and institutionalised is this menace at the desks of the Estate Office and its bosses, a disturbing picture comes to light in the wake of facts revealed the other day during an applicant's complaint against discrimination in the allotment of official housing units. During the last seven years, that's from 2004 onward, every third allotment has been made out of turn. And this is a credible piece of information as it comes from one who is overall in charge of the Housing Ministry, Federal Secretary Kamran Lashari. He told the court that 6,296 allotments fall in the category of these out-of-turn allotments, while genuine applicants are on the waiting list for years, some for as long as quarter of a century. How much of money makes the mare go in this out-of-turn allotments business - something between Rs 80,000 and Rs 120,000 would cost an illegal allotment of the smallest two-room unit in Islamabad, and the bigger houses cost proportionately more. The money so spent is recovered by the beneficiary by sub-letting the allotted accommodation, often partly and in some cases wholly. And the money so earned goes all the way to the top. No surprise then over an apparently disturbed Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry's observation: "Corruption is like a cancer and persons involved in it should be sacked." The city of Islamabad as federal capital was built around the concept that the government employees would be getting official housing, given there was no other option because in its early days of the new city there were not many private houses to be rented. But over the time, government housing couldn't keep pace with the mushrooming federal government size and thus gap between the requirement and availability widened which at present is some 26,000 government housing units for about half a million employees. Faced with this challenge, the government allowed hiring against fixed ceilings in addition to granting house rent allowance. However, government accommodation has remained the most coveted facility and hence the fierce contention to get it. This did work to the satisfaction for claimants to all three options for some time but no more for the reason that when money came in as a factor to help one jump the queue. The scenario of rampant corruption in this out-of-turn allotment business gets all the murkier in light of the fact that quite a few of illegal occupants have just no right to be accommodated in government houses. In most of the cases, these illegal occupants are private citizens, but have been given government accommodation as they are said to be the chums of high-ranking officials or known for their influential positions in the private sector. May be they are in there as tenants who have hired the accommodation from the original allottees. This is indeed a complex issue, requiring a long-term solution and concerted follow-up action to restore transparency to the entire process and procedure of allotment, mainly by cutting out the so-called ministerial influence which frequently comes to bear on the Housing Ministry and Estate Office. "We will see who is pressurising you; we will pass an order to protect you," the Chief Justice told Kamran Lashari. Will the Chief Justice's word to stand by him drive Kamran Lashari to clean the Aegean stables? We will watch and wait. Copyright Business Recorder, 2011