Judges, journalists and bureaucrats: Senate body questions allotment of plots

Expressing serious concern over allotment of two plots to judges of Supreme Court, a parliamentary panel on Wednesday sought an audit report of housing and works ministry. Senate standing committee on housing and works, which met here with its chairman Shahi Syed in the chair, strongly protested over in allotment of two plots to judges of Supreme Court, terming it a violation of human rights.
"We talk of human rights...a judge is being given two plots in posh sectors of federal capital", the members of panel questioned while expressing, a strong sense of rather bluntly resentment over allotment of two plots to judges during Musharraf regime.
Senator Muhammad Hamza of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), one of the members of the panel, came down hard on CDA officials and said if a judge was blessed with two plots, how one would expect justice in this country. Shahi Syed, a senator of Awami National Part (ANP) from Karachi, who is also chairman of the committee, said the then president, Pervez Musharraf, distributed over 6000 plots among journalists, bureaucrats and judges. "Why the military man had a soft a corner for these people [journalists, bureaucrats, judges] and blessed them with plots...this practice of nepotism and using state resources for someone's vested interest must come to an end", he maintained.
He directed the ministry to furnish a detailed report about the audit of the ministry, development and non-development expenditures as well as allotment of houses during the last five years. Secretary housing and works Kamran Lashri told the panel that the ministry had 27,794 housing units across the country. It faced a shortfall of 23,408 housing units. According to him, there is a shortfall of 1966 houses in Islamabad 1801 in, Lahore, 954 Peshawar. In Quetta, there is a shortage of 28 housing units, he added.
Lashari informed the panel that on Supreme Court's directives, a general waiting list had been prepared by the ministry, under which houses were being allotted to government employees. According to him, there are total 1792 cases under litigation, of which 1042 have been disposed while 666 are pending before different courts. As many as 100 illegally occupied houses have been vacated, he added.