ISLAMABAD: Senate Standing Committee on Housing and Works expressed strong displeasure on Monday over the federal government authorities' failure to evacuate Sector G-14 from the possession of land mafia for the last 16 years, and asked the Federal Government Employees Housing Authority (FGEHA) and the Ministry of Housing and Works to take steps on mandatory basis to handover the possession of the plots in the said sector to the allottees.
The committee has also decided to summon Secretary Interior Yousaf Naseem Khokhar and Chief Commissioner Islamabad Amir Ali Ahmed, in the next meeting, to brief the committee regarding steps to be taken to get Sector G-14 evicted from illegal occupants.
"If land mafia is so powerful right here in the federal capital, imagine what would be the things like in the rest of the country," Committee Chairman Senator Mir Kabir Ahmed Muhammad Shahi said, while presiding over the Senate panel's meeting.
"We are simply shocked and speechless-to learn about the lengths this powerful land mafia can go to get the things done. Even the government is helpless or it is complicit as far as the unabated highhandedness of the land mafia is concerned," he said.
The committee was considering a point of public importance raised by Senator Behramand Tangi regarding illegal occupation of Sector G-14 by the land mafia. Federal Secretary Housing and Works Dr Imran Zeb Khan admitted before the committee that the government was, so far, unable to get Sector G-14 evacuated from illegal occupants.
He said an operation was launched in Sector G-14 on June 30, 2020, against illegal occupants. "But those illegal occupants had badly beaten our employees which left them seriously injured. Even our cars were destroyed," the secretary said.
The committee inquired what action had been taken against those involved in disrupting the operation, beating the FGEHA employees, and destroying official vehicles. The secretary responded that a case against those involved in the matter was registered.
The secretary briefed the committee that the award of 150 properties in Sector G-14 had been issued, and payments were made to 100 of them. Senator Behramand Tangi said only 580 people in the said sector were "local residents, while 1,100 persons are part of the land mafia."
He said more than 514 allottees had died since 2004 in their quest for the possession of plots in Sector G-14 despite paying all the instalments. "And now their children are wandering from pillar to post. This is a horrifying tale of bureaucratic apathy and criminal negligence on part of the federal government," Tangi said.
A committee was formed in the light of a decision of the Islamabad High Court (IHC), which decided that Sector G-14 would be evacuated from land mafia within 15 days but the committee's decision had not been implemented, he said.
The secretary housing and works proposed to the committee to summon Secretary Interior Yousaf Naseem Khokhar and Chief Commissioner Islamabad Amir Ali Ahmed in the next meeting to brief the committee regarding steps to be taken to get sector G-14 evicted from illegal occupants.
The committee decided to summon both the officials in the next meeting, and deferred the matter till then. In a related development, the allottees of Sector G-14 have decided to hold a peaceful protest in front of the National Press Club, Islamabad on October 17, 2020.
The allottees have written a letter to Deputy Commissioner Islamabad Hamza Shafqaat to intimate him regarding their plan. "Allottees have been registering their grievances through meeting with FGEHA staff, applications to Wafaqi Mohtasib/Senate and National Assembly Standing Committee and complaints on Citizen Portal. Unfortunately, no concrete action has been taken to resolve the problem," the letter reads, a copy of which is available with Business Recorder.
It assured the DC Islamabad that all the standard precautionary measures against the Covid-19 would be followed during the protest. On June 22, 2020, a grand operation, which was planned by the FGEHA, under the supervision of its Director General (DG) Wasim Hayat Bajwa to clear this sector from illegal possession of land mafia and various other groups who had forcefully occupied the land that was allotted to government employees more than 16 years ago, was halted allegedly on political pressure.
More than 2,000 government employees were allotted land in Sector G-14 in the year 2004, and they paid all the pending instalments to get possession of the land. However, the possession of this land was never given to the allottees as various groups in G-14 allegedly patronised by the land mafia kept raising the issue of compensation against the possession of the land by carrying out illegal construction in the sector.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2020
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