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

ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly’s Special Committee on Railways has recommended the termination of a contract pertaining to the allotment of Pakistan Railways’ land to the Royal Palm Golf and Country Club on the grounds that the lessee did not get the defaults regularised in accordance with the provisions of the contract.

The special committee’s report, which was presented in the House on Friday, said the lessee had failed to make payments that were due to the Pakistan Railways. It further said the agreement had no legal or moral standing as it had been achieved through deceit, misrepresentation, fraud and cheating and should be terminated accordingly.

The report prepared by a 20-member parliamentary committee formed by the assembly speaker in 2008 said that if the value of the PR land was accepted as Rs 3.2 billion approximately, even then the PR would suffer a loss of Rs 25 billion because the rent had not been calculated according to the Railways’ Code of Engineering. The code provides that the annual rent should not be less than 15 percent of the market value of the land.

Declaring the contract detrimental to public interest, the committee recommended that the contract should be terminated and all the dues and losses recovered from the lessee with interest.

Proceedings: It further recommended that legal proceedings be initiated against former railways minister Lt General ® Javed Ashraf Qazi, former railways secretaries/chairmen Lt General ® Saeeduz Zafar and Khurshid Alam Khan; and former PR general manager Major General ® Hamid Hassan Butt.

The committee further recommended that all members of the Executive Committee should be prosecuted. The committee comprised the railways secretary, GM (Operations), GM (S&M) and GM (Finance).

The special committee further recommended that members of the committee, which examined pre-qualification criteria, should also be brought to justice. It recommended that properties of all these people be confiscated and auctioned to cover the losses the national exchequer had suffered due to negligence, connivance and disregard to public interest.

* Giving a break up of occupied land, House told 1,159 acres of land encroached by govt depts, 3,072 acres of land in illegal possession of individuals

By Ali Hussain

ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly was informed on Monday that various government department, institutions and individuals have occupied a total of 4,231 acres of land of the Pakistan Railways.

Railways Minister of State Muhammad Afzal Sindhu responding to various questions by the members also told the House that restructuring of the Pakistan Railways was under consideration by the Cabinet Committee of Restructuring. He said Prime Minister Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani had called a meeting on September 27 to discuss issues relating to the railways.

Giving details of the occupied land in a written reply, the House was told that 1,159 acres of land was being encroached by government departments, while 3,072 acres of land was in illegal possession of certain individuals. In the provinces, 396 acres of land was being occupied in Peshawar, 103 in Rawalpindi, 2,420 in Lahore, 237 in Multan, 260 in Sukkur, 249 in Karachi and 566 in Quetta.

The NA was further informed that regular anti-encroachment operations had been conducted with the help of the authorities concerned.

Sindhu said that the issue of illegal encroachment on the Railways’ land was being taken up with the department concerned along with the provinces. The House was told that First Information Reports (FIRs) had been lodged and police memos had also been issued to the illegal occupants, while the occupation by government departments had already been taken up with the departments concerned, and was being perused for a mutual settlement.

To a question, Sindhu said that 10 passenger services had been suspended, as they were incurring losses. He added that there was no plan to privatise Pakistan Railways.

He further said that an amount of Rs 422.297 million had been allocated since 2007 for the renovation, repair and maintenance of the railway station building under revenue, improvement funds and the public sector development programme.

The minister added that the Railways Department was in loss in many countries of the world expect in India and a few other countries.

In her remarks, NA Speaker Fehmida Mirza said that Pakistan Railways was not a profit earning department rather it was a welfare department and the government should come up with a policy, which ensures that this facility is not taken away from the citizens of the country.

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) MNA Birjees Tahir said that the government should tell the House whether it had failed to run the Railways, as many train services had been suspended, or their had been talks of privatising the important public entity.

Separately, Food and Agriculture Minister Nazar Muhammad Gondal told the House in a written reply that wheat availability for the current year was over 28 million tonnes, which was well above the annual requirements of 23.7 million tonnes. This includes 23.86 million tonnes of wheat produced during last year and carry over stocks of 4.22 million tonnes, he added.

He further said that sugar production was 3.1 million tonnes, against the requirement of 4.4 million tonnes.

Minister for Health Makhdoom Shahabuddin told the House that across the board price increase of medicines was not allowed since December 2001. However hardship cases for price increase had been considered and approved by the government, keeping in view the devaluation of the rupee, hike in prices of raw material, packaging material, energy cost, inflation and labour cost, he added.

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.

Sindh Chief Minister (CM) Syed Qaim Ali Shah has said that the present government was implementing Shaheed Bhutto’s programme of Roti-Kapra-Mukan to provide shelter to homeless people.

In this regard, poor families would be provided houses under the Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Housing Programme for the poor in various cities of the province.

Chairing an important meeting in this regard, Shah said that this year at least 10,000 people would get the facility under this programme.

He said these houses would be provided to poor, low income and low-paid employees.

In a detailed briefing on the occasion, Provincial Minister for Housing Agha Taimur and Special Assistant to the CM Zia-ul-Islam said that the Speaker, National Assembly, Fahmida Mirza would inaugurate the first ‘Sister Benazir Basti’ on December 1 while construction of houses for 125 families would soon be started in Garhi Khuda Bux and in Dah Janoi Sukkur, Deh Nagan Karachi, Deh Luqman, Khairpur, Deh Rerhi (Karachi).

http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=210308

By Irfan Bukhari
ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly Standing Committee on Human Rights was told on Thursday that American nationals were purchasing land in the suburbs of the capital, which could be a conspiracy to besiege the country’s nuclear assets.

MNA Javed Hashmi, who also heads the NA human rights body’s sub-committee on American private security firm Blackwater’s alleged presence in the country, said the US was purchasing land in the city’s suburbs, including Malpur, Sihala and the Simly Dam area.

“Influential people in Islamabad are renting out their houses to Americans,” he added. Talking to Daily Times, Hashmi said the sub-committee had not finalised its report, “but as per preliminary information, it is an established fact that Inter-Risk and DynCorp are training recruits in Peshawar”.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp…2009_pg1_2

* NA informed Sports Ministry will start 16 development projects in 2009-10
* Govt setting up 14 cadet colleges at a cost of Rs 4.8 billion

By Irfan Bukhari

ISLAMABAD: The minister for Industries and Production on Friday informed the National Assembly that the government had prepared the Malakand Development Programme to spur industrial growth and employment opportunities in the area.

The minister was answering a supplementary question during NA question hour.

“A similar plan will also be implemented in the Tribal Areas,” he added.

To a question, Sports Minister Syed Aftab Jillani informed the House that the Pakistan Cricket Board had awarded central contracts to 33 players of the national cricket team, strictly on merit.

“More than 45 sports-related development schemes are underway at a cost of Rs 2.71 billion and would be completed by 2011,” Jillani said.

The minister said the Sports Ministry would start 16 development projects during 2009-10 that would include three for the development of cricket worth Rs 204 million, nine for hockey worth Rs 307 million, and four for squash worth Rs 50.5 million.

“The Federal Sports Ministry will also allocate special funds for the Football Federation to build football stadium and sports complexes for the promotion of football in the country,” Jillani said.

The minister of State for Education, Ghulam Farid Kathia, informed the House that the government was working on a strategy to raise the budgetary allocation for education to up to four percent of the GDP in the coming year.

He said the prime minister had constituted a task force to transform Islamabad into “first knowledge city” to promote education. The NA was informed that the government was setting up 14 cadet colleges across the country at a cost of Rs 4.8 billion.

Responding to another query, he said funds allocated for the Higher Education Commission could not be released against the allocations due to the financial crunch in the last two years. Minister for Industries Manzoor Wattoo informed the House that the cabinet’s Economic Coordination Committee had approved a development programme for the auto industry to boost local production of automobile spare parts.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp…009_pg7_10

* Rs 13 billion project will be completed in two years

By Aamir Yasin

RAWALPINDI: Punjab Chief Minister (CM) Shahbaz Sharif on Wednesday gave a go ahead for the project of elevated expressway from Secretariat-II to Chandni Chowk, Benazir Bhutto Shaheed (BBS) Road. The project will be completed in two years at a cost of Rs13 billion. The CM directed the authorities concerned to complete the formalities in minimum time and start construction work early as possible. The CM was addressing a meeting at Benazir Bhutto Shaheed International Airport on Wednesday. Leader of Opposition in National Assembly Ch. Nisar Ali Khan, MNA Khwaja Muhammad Asif, Rawalpindi Commissioner Zahid Saeed, RPO, Additional IG Muhammad Aslam Tareen, DCO Imdadullah Bosal, CPO Rao Muhammad Iqbal, NESPAK Vice President Qazi Iftikhar and other concerned officers were present. Sharif said elevated expressway should be completed expeditiously for the provision of better transport facilities to the citizens of Rawalpindi and to solve traffic problems on this important road. He said all details regarding contract and construction of the project should be completed without any delay. Third party evaluation: He said third party evaluation and other measures should also be adopted for ensuring a high standard of the project. He said due to the high cost of the project of elevated expressway, the purpose of considering various options was to ensure proper utilization of public money so that funds could be saved and utilised on other schemes of public welfare. He said the amended project of expressway would considerably solve traffic problems of Rawalpindi and better communication facilities would become available to the masses. Saeed and Iftikhar told Daily Times that due to heavy cost of the project of elevated expressway on BBS Road the CM had issued instructions last month to rationalise the expenditure and after reports of various committees, the project had been prepared. They said earlier the project envisaged construction of expressway from Mall Road to Double Road at an estimated cost of Rs 30 billion. They said a detailed study was conducted to reduce the cost of the project. Moreover, two under passes would be constructed at Sixth Road Chowk and Double Road Chowk to make BBS Road signal free up to Faizabad, they added. They said the elevated expressway would be 4.5km long and would have two lanes on each side.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp…009_pg11_3