National Assembly's Standing Committee on Interior expressed strong concern on Tuesday over the 'fraud' allegedly committed by Jammu and Kashmir Cooperative Housing Society (JKCHS) and sought a detailed report from the Ministry of Interior regarding the reports that scores of plot holders were deprived of billions of rupees due to the 'deceptive tactics' of the JKCHS management.
"This society (JKCHS) is a total fraud. The allottees have paid all the instalments in different housing projects run by this society but there is no development on the ground at all in areas like Zone V, a key project of this society. Where should the allottees go now?" asked committee's Chairman Raja Khurram Nawaz from the ruling party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) while chairing the committee's meeting.
"The people invested their hard-earned money in this society hoping that JKCHS would be properly developed and the allottees would earn some money by selling their plots in profit. On the contrary, there has been zero development in areas like Zone V for more than 15 years," he said.
The committee members said that due to no development in different areas like Zone V falling under the purview of JKCHS, the allottees have no option but to sell their plots and that too at throwaway prices. "On one hand, there is no development which means allottees cannot start construction of houses, and on the other hand, the agent mafia backed by JKCHS management forces the allottees to sell their plots for peanuts. It is like adding insult to injury. We would not allow this to happen," said the committee chairman.
The representatives of JKCHS briefed the committee about different projects of the society but the committee members termed the briefing as unsatisfactory and asked the Interior Ministry to furnish a detailed report regarding JKCHS. The committee also sought information about administrators of the JKCHS who served in different tenures and also details of projects including total number of people who have been allotted plots by JKCHS. The committee also sought details of the societies against which action was taken due to alleged frauds committed by them and amount/land recovered from them. The committee decided to hold a separate meeting on the issue of alleged frauds committed by different cooperative societies which reportedly resulted in loss of billions of rupees to the general public. "Cooperative societies use name of the government organizations to deceive people. Action must be taken against them," the committee chairman said.
Meanwhile, the committee passed a private member bill 'The Trafficking of Persons (Prevention and Rehabilitation) Bill, 2019,' moved by Nafeesa Khattak, a Member National Assembly (MNA) from PTI.
The bill aims to prevent the trafficking of persons; to prosecute offenders; and to provide care, protection and rehabilitation to the victims of trafficking.
Moreover, the NA committee took up the issue of granting dual nationality to Pakistanis living in Malaysia. The Interior Ministry informed the committee that the government is planning to start negotiation with the government of Malaysia on the issue of granting dual nationality to Pakistanis.
MNAs Sher Akbar Khan, Mehar Ghulam Muhammad Lali, Raza Nasrullah, Khawaja Sheraz Mehmood, Karamat Khokhar, Sardar Talib Nakai, Nafeesa Khattak, Shazain Bugti, Agha Rafiullah, Yousuf Talpur, Asmatullah, and Asma Qadeer and the senior officers from the Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Law and Justice, and Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) attended the meeting.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2019
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