Islamabad: The Auditor General of Pakistan [AGP] has exposed a dirty deal involving the Jamaat-e-Islami [JI], which recently launched a train march against corruption, specifically targeting the leadership of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz.
The Public Accounts Committee [PAC] on Thursday was told that the Institute of Policy Studies [IPS] — a think tank founded by former senator Prof Khurshid Ahmed of the JI, had illegally sold the plot, located in a posh sector of Islamabad. It was originally given to IPS on lease.
The deal cost the Capital Development Authority (CDA) losses of Rs462.22 million and the PAC decided to probe how a plot worth billions was sold by a lessee to private builders.
The special committee will finalise its report in 15 days.
The case emerged during examination of the CDA’s audit report for 2013-2014.
According to details, the CDA had lease a commercial plot in F-7 Markaz to the IPS in 1981 for Rs1,000 per month on the condition that it be used for educational purposes.
According to the CDA officials, military dictator General Ziaul Haq had given approval for an extendable 33-year lease.
The IPS made repeated attempts and managed to convert the institute into a commercial entity in phases.
The CDA Board allowed, as special case, the setting up of a shopping mall on ground floor.
In January 2008, the board decided that commercialisation of the building would be allowed, subject to razing and rebuilding by provision of parking and payment of commercialisation charges, noted the auditors.
Briefing the committee, the CDA told the PAC that the IPS plot was converted into a commercial entity five years before the expiry of the lease, after which it illegally sold the plot to a private party — Union Construction — against a hefty payment.
Later, 122 units were built and transferred to all the occupants through the CDA transfer, he added.
The audit observed that the plot was transferred in the name of private parties in August 2012.
The audit observed that the departure from rules and regulations resulted in a loss of Rs462.22 million.
Rule 185(5) Chapter V of Islamabad Land Disposal Regulation 2005 says that plots allotted for social welfare projects shall not be transferable without prior permission of the authority, and only in exceptional cases. It adds that the post-transfer land use would be for the same purpose as before, or the plot and any structures on it would revert to the authority.
The revelation of the JI’s involvement in the dirty deal offered the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz [PML-N] an opportunity to settle scores, and Mian Abdul Manan rose to the occasion, saying, “The detail of the case should be displayed on the JI’s train march against corruption.”
Meanwhile, the PAC expressed displeasure and chairman Khursheed Shah took exception that a water conduction scheme from Shah Allah Ditta reservoirs to supply water to 14 sectors could not be completed in 17 years.
Started on September 21, 1999, the scheme was supposed to be completed in one year. Over Rs842 million have already been spent on it.
Shah directed the CDA to complete the scheme in 15 days and submit a compliance report or be ready to face the music.
“You don’t have the will to do the job,” he said.
The committee also expressed apprehensions at the size of the CDA’s legal team — 115 lawyers — and asked the body to terminate contracts and only sign deals with reputable law firms.
The authority informed that an estimated 1,000 cases were pending in the high court, 3,000 in district courts, and 100 in civil courts.
