DHA Lahore Bahria Town Map Plots Houses Buy Sell Rent Property Prices

LAHORE: Lahore High Court Justice Umar Ata Bandial on Friday extended stay against the recovery of capital value tax (CVT) from the employees’ old-age benefits institution (EOBI) and its officers until February 22.

The judge also gave time to the Punjab government law officer to file his reply by the next hearing.

The petitioner, EOBI had challenged the imposition of CVT by the provincial government under section 6 of the Punjab Finance Act, 2010.

The judge had already restrained the tax department from taking coercive measures for the recovery of CVT from the institution, and sought replies from the Board of Revenue and other respondents.

The petitioner’s counsel, Mansoor Usman Awan, submitted that the CVT had first been levied by the federal government under section 7 (pf) of the Finance Act, 1989. He said that after the 18th Amendment, the power to collect CVT had not been transferred to the provinces and this was apparently the first demand and recovery notice sent by the provincial government through the Board of Revenue to a statuary body.

Awan argued that section 6 of the act imposed CVT on transfer of immoveable property by a person, which did not include a statutory corporate body like the petitioner, and pertained to transfer between members of a family which again was not a transaction undertaken by the petitioner (EOBI) as a transferee from the Ministry of Defence.

He requested that the impugned notice issued to the petitioner should be declared unconstitutional and without lawful authority.

QUETTA – Speaker Balochistan Assembly, Muhammad Aslam Bhootani has revealed that Prime Minister House is exerting pressure on Balochistan government to sell land to Arab Sheikhs in his constituency in district Lasbela near coastal highway.
He warned that people of Balochistan would resist if the proposed land was sold to Arab Sheikhs. Addressing a Press conference here at Quetta Press Club, he said that Chief Minister Balochistan had always raised voice for the rights and resources of Balochistan after formation of his government with the support of all coalition partners.
He recalled that previous government had allotted 70,000 acres of land to a Federal institution along coastal highway of Balochistan which was largely opposed by the local people and after hectic efforts of Chief Minister Balochistan Nawab Muhammad Aslam Khan Raisani the agreement was cancelled.
Bhootani said that once again thousands of acres of land near coastal highway were being sold to Arab Sheikhs belonging to UAE and Prime Minister House is asking the Balochistan Government for signing the deal.
‘Summary of allotment was prepared over night by Revenue Department and it was dispatched to Chief Minister Balochistan for approval’, Bhootani added.
He said that people had shown their anger protesting over the proposed plan because they were living there since centuries.
‘We would not permit anybody to sell the land of our people’, Speaker added.
Responding to a question, Bhootani said that it was correct that Arab Sheikhs were paying for the cost but Balochistan’s vast area was not for sale.
‘People of Balochistan particularly people of Hub have apprised their reservations to provincial and Federal governments and we hope that Chief Minister who always protected the rights would oppose the moves of Prime Minister House’, he added.
He also demanded of the Prime Minister to review his decision and cancel the proposed plan of selling lands to Arab Sheikhs.

Sibghatullah Virk
Federal Government Employee Housing Foundation collected billions of rupees from government employees in the name of a housing scheme in Bahara Kahoo and the collected capital remained in the Foundation’s account but applicants find no way to get reward of their heavy payments made to the FGEHF a year before.

Federal Government Employee Housing Scheme finds no place even after one year of its inception and project gets no exposure to the public while poor applicants very rightly question the scope of their payments made to the Foundation.

The housing scheme in the vicinity of the federal capital near Barra Kehoo was started in August 2009 for federal government’s employees and had been charged Rs 50,000 each. Billions of rupees were collected but remained with the Foundation while the matter has been lying pending with different institutions simultaneously.

National Assembly’s Standing Committee for Housing and Works claims that the land had been acquired at desired rates whereas the federal minister claims that the procedure had been transparent and the land had been acquired at market rates.

The story does not finish here as it moves ahead with a new twist since Capital Development Authority did not issue no-objection certificate to the Foundation to move forward. The process had been started in hurry without fulfilling basic formalities but applicants had been called and money received from them as a result of which the poor employees seem to be very disappointed. The project is one of the delayed projects while a few were launched 18 years ago. For example, Phase-II Islamabad (Sectors D-12, E-12, I-8 and G-11) was launched in 1992, Phase-III Islamabad (Sector G-13 & Sub Sector G-14/4) in 1996, Phase-IV Islamabad (Sub-Sectors G-14/1,2,3 & G-15/3,4) on 16th December 2003 and Phase-V Islamabad (Housing Scheme for Low Paid FG Employees in Sub-sectors G-11/3, 4) was launched in April 2005.

Similar is the case with the projects in other cities as FGE Housing Scheme at Regi Lalma Peshawer was launched in 1995 and Phase-I Karachi in 1992 whereas Phase-II Karachi was launched in 1999. “Who will be responsible for this delay as our money is losing worth with every hour passing and we don’t know about the future of our payments since there is no ray of hope in the near future,” said one of the applicants. If foundation gets NOC from CDA and allotment starts who would be able to pay heavy development charges which have been increasing day by day and how a government worker, who gets 2 or 3 millions as his life asset in the form of pension at the time of his or her retirement will manage to pay more than his complete assets, he added.

It is worth mentioning that the project finds no space on the Foundation’s web portal and nothing is disseminated by the officials for the applicants regarding the project. This makes the condition more troublesome as poor government employees find no news about his precious amount lying with the Foundation’s account. A source told this correspondent that the sites will be allotted on first-come-first-served basis which again will curtail merit since a junior guy can get his place and a senior old employee could lose the very chance of finding a small piece to live on in the feeble part of his life.

KARACHI: The Sindh government has decided to utilise Rs 250 million received from the federal government out of the Zakat fund for the construction of low-cost houses in the flood-affected areas of the province.

The decision was taken at a meeting of Sindh Zakat and Ushr Department (SZUD) chaired by Sindh Chief Minister (CM) Qaim Ali Shah at the Chief Minister’s House on Friday.

The federal government has provided Rs 250 million to the Sindh SZUD for relief measures.

It was proposed in the meeting to build 1,000 to 2,000 houses in the eight most-affected districts.

It was envisaged that the process was long term for which a comprehensive strategy would be evolved, and the required funds would be spent in a judicious and transparent manner.

It was decided that besides government officers, elected representatives, retired senior judges and members of opposition parties would also be included in the committees to be formed in this regard.

The meeting was attended by Sindh Zakat Minister Muhammad Sajid Jokhio, Sindh Zakat Council Chairman Justice Zahid Qurban Alvi, Zakat department secretary Ahsan Iqbal Zaidi and others.

The allottees of Sector G-14 have heaved a sigh of relief following the announcement of the award for built-up property in Sector G-15/3, which has paved the way for the development of Sector G-14 here on Friday.

These allottees have thanked Cabinet Division Secretary Abdul Rauf Chaudhry, Federal Government Employees Housing Foundation director general and Islamabad chief commissioner.

The allottees have demanded of the deputy commissioner Islamabad to pay the owners of houses in Sector G-15/3 and take the possession of the land as soon as possible. They demanded of concerned authority to complete the work acquiring of land, payment of built-up property and engineering survey in Sector G-14 and announce the development award within two months.

The allottees were of the view that Sector G-14 was opened in 2004, but after the lapse of six years they were waiting for the launch of development work, as majority of allottees got retired from their services and have been forced to live in rented houses.

It is worth mentioning here that Land Acquisition Collector (Islamabad) Khalid Yamin Satti on Thursday announced the award for the built-up property in Sector G-15/3. The award amounts to Rs368.5 million. The award was announced in the light of estimates, assessments and rates of built-up property received from the Federal Government Employees Housing Foundation (FGEHF), Islamabad.

The base of the award was a detailed survey of built-up property in Sub-Sector G-15/3 Islamabad, which was conducted by the Pakistan Public Works Department (Pak-PWD) and FGEHF in the beginning of the year. The News

Associated Press of Pakistan
Minister for Housing and Works Rehmatullah Kakar has expressed the confidence that the dream of low income group to have own homes would soon come true as the government has initiated work on various long and short term housing projects.

Talking to media, he said soon after taking over the charge the government announced to construct one million houses.

Following a short-term strategy, the government has constructed 10,300 houses, which is double of the set target of 5,000 houses, he said. Construction of houses has been started in sectors G-10, G-11 and I-11 in Islamabad. Construction of housing units is underway in Karachi in Gulshan-e-Memar, scheme 33 and Mono Got areas, Hayatabad in Peshawar, in the Federal colony in Lahore and along the Chaman highway area in Quetta.

About 3000 kanals of land in Bara Kahu has been purchased, where flats and plots would be built and allotted to government employees, general public and journalists, Kakar said.

The allotment would be on `no profit and no loss basis’. About two percent quota for journalists and non-journalists has been allocated in each of the federal schemes. An agreement to construct about 5250 houses and flats in Karachi would be signed with private sector within next few days, the minister said.

He said that investors are showing interest in Pakistan’s housing sector, adding that two foreign companies want to build about 13500 houses in Karachi alone.

He added that the government is according high priority to the development of housing sector.

Development of housing sector would also give boost to 47 other industries linked with it.

The Prime Minister’s Housing project launched last year to provide houses to low income group would boost socio-economic activities in the country”, he added He said that under the Prime Minister’s Housing for All Programme, one million housing units would be constructed throughout the country including AJK and Northern Areas for the needy, poor, government servants and general public on affordable cost.

Federal Government Employees Housing Foundation (FGEHF) has registered more than 18,000 employees under the government’s scheme to provide houses to government servants.

The Minister said that Pakistan Housing Authority (PHA) has been activated and given the task to accomplish the housing projects.

ISLAMABAD: Capital Development Authority (CDA) has colleted Rs 2.1 billion revenue through auction of 93 residential, commercial, agro-farming and industrial plots during the last three years, Minister in charge Cabinet Division told the Senate in a written reply on Wednesday. He said 62 plots were residential, 10 commercial, 11 agro-farming and 10 industrial. The minister told the House that CDA intended to allot more agro-farming plots during current year through auction and allotment to the affected people of Islamabad. He said the affected people included those from whom CDA acquired 100 kanals of cultivable land. He said CDA Board had constituted an allotment scrutiny committee and the board considered recommendations of the committee for approval of the cases. He said 504 agro-farms in Islamabad had been leased out so far. “Out of these farms, 332 were leased out through open auction to general public and 172 were leased out to the affected people of Islamabad under the Rehabilitation Policy. He said these plots were initially allotted for 33 years lease period, which is further extendable for two terms of 33 years each. The Senate was informed that the federal government was considering the report of Pay and Pension Commission for implementation. Replying to a question, Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs Babar Awan assured the House that recommendations of the commission would be implemented. He said as the result of steps taken by the Central Bank, average consumer price index inflation had fallen from 22.8 percent in the last year to 11.3 per cent in March this year. tahir niaz