The National Assembly on Tuesday referred the issue of alleged irregular allotment of plots in Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) by the government to some federal secretaries, NGOs and a private organisation to the Standing Committee on Interior.
Some of the opposition legislators termed the allotment of land as a "serious violation of rules and regulations."
"Under what powers and authority the Prime Minister and other government organisations made the allotment in violation of CDA Land Regulations 1993?" questioned Nayyer Hussain Bokhari of PPP-Parliamentarians. Speaking on alleged irregular allotment of land in ICT, he said the government allotted plots to 33 federal secretaries.
"The government is holding back the exact criteria, under which these bureaucrats, become eligible for these high value plots," he lamented. The government allotted the plots without looking into the fact that some federal secretaries had already been given plots in the ICT, he continued.
Khawaja Muhammad Asif, Ghulam Murtaza Satti, Syed Nayyer Bokhari and Mian Mohammad Aslam moved the matter of urgent public importance and the two movers were given time to discuss the issue. Khawaja Asif and Mian Aslam MNAs were not present when the House took up the matter for discussion.
He said 32 plots were given to the NGOs for building schools. The government, he said, does not clarify its position on this issue, too. All these plots were allotted at Rs 4,500 per square yard, while the average price of such plots is around Rs 100,000 per square yard, said Bokhari.
The market value of commercial plots is even much higher. The price of land in a recent commercial auctioning was more than Rs 175,000 per square yard, while the government price was not more than Rs 45,000 per square yard for commercial plots.
Not only this, he said, the Prime Minister has handed over a plot in F-9 Park earlier earmarked for the Islamabad Public Library to Nazriya-e-Pakistan Council. He said all these allotments had been made in clear violation of rules and regulations of the Capital Development Authority (CDA). "The Prime Minister is giving away these plots as his personal property," he alleged.
Ghulam Murtaza Satti, MNA said that these plots were given as a political bribery to help the Prime Minister strengthen his position in the bureaucracy. "The Prime Minister is benefiting his favourites whether they are in Stock Exchange, or contenders to take their share in the privatisation process," said Satti. The PM is adding another group of his favourites in the bureaucracy. It was the issue of land, which reversed the whole privatisation process of Pakistan Steel Mills, he said.
Minister of State for Interior Zafar Iqbal Warriach, while responding to the points raised by the opposition MPs, agreed to refer the issue to the Committee on Interior. However, he observed that the committee must look into the plot allotments made during the last 25 years.
Noor Jehan Panezai, who chaired the session for some time, instructed the minister to call in the movers in committee meeting as special invitees. The precedents of inviting MPs other than members of the committee also exist in the past, she observed.
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