The National Assembly on Thursday developed a consensus to investigate the allotment of lands of the Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB) to its officials and its monetary affairs through a parliamentary committee. The House on the recommendation of Minister for Religious Affairs Syed Khurshid Shah proposed a committee of the National Assembly to be constituted to thoroughly probe into the affairs of the lands of the ETPB as well as the available funds.
Earlier, Kishan Chand Parwani, a minority MNA from Hindu community, while speaking on a call attention notice regarding illegal allotment of plots to the officers of the Ministry of Minorities Affairs and others by Chairman of the ETPB, demanded a committee of the House to probe into the matter, which was also supported by Minister for Religious Affairs Syed Khurshid Shah.
Upon which, the acting Speaker Faisal Karim Kundi said that the committee would be set up in consultation with minorities' members, which would submit its report to the House within three months. Responding the call attention notice, Khurshid Shah that ETPB had approved a residential project having 171 kanal of land in 1999 in Lahore, but later some of its land was shifted to Lahore Ring Road project and Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Hospital.
He said the said project was reviewed in 2009 and also initiated in other cities. He however, said that the project was stopped due to stay order by a court and after the court order the allotment letters, which were issued earlier, have also been stopped. To a question raised by Parwani that people were being sent to perform Hajj on the funds of the ETPB, while the property only belong to Sikh and Hindu communities, the Minister admitted it and said that the fund should be spent on sending the members of the minorities communities on their worship places abroad as well as on the construction of their worship places in the country. Shah further said that he fully agreed with concerns shown by the member, however, added that the PPP government was fully cognisant of minorities' rights and would ensure provision of their due rights.
To ensure transparency in the affairs of the ETPB, another minorities' MNA Manwer Lal suggested that parliamentarians belonging to minority communities should be included in ETPB board. Meanwhile, responding to another call attention notice, Syed Khurshid Shah said that the Capital Development Authority (CDA) has not allowed erection of signboards or hoarding in the Parks or green belts.
The call attention notice was moved by Farrah Naz Ispahani, Nafisa Shah, Abdul Ghani Talpur and others regarding the rapid increase in number of hoardings in green areas and parks of the Federal Capital causing damages to the beauty of the capital city. However, on pointing out by the members the erection of sign boards in various green areas and parks, the acting Speaker Faisal Karim Kundi asked Syed Khurshid Shah to personally visit the areas where these have been erected unlawfully.