Commercial use of A-1 land by armed forces: Defence secretary wants end to practice

Defence Secretary Lieutenant General Syed Athar Ali (Retd) seeks to stop the armed forces from using A-1 military land for commercial purposes through an amendment in existing policy. Countering the audit report of Defence Services for 2008-09, the secretary defence informed the National Assembly''s Public Accounts Committee that the ministry had felt the need to make the use of A-1 military land more transparent.
A decision in this respect had been taken after cases of misuse of the military land came to surface. To curb this practice, an amendment would soon be introduced and sent to the Federal Cabinet for approval. The defence secretary further assured the committee that the data of all the A-1 land in the possession of three forces would be collected by his ministry with a view to evolving a fair asset management mechanism to discourage the practice of commercialisation of land in future.
In one case, Military Estate Office (MEO) Lahore allowed 17 locations of A-1 land for commercial use without prior approval, reclassification or lease execution. In addition to this, income received from these locations was not deposited to government treasury. In these 17 locations, the land of Fortress Stadium would also be included.
The audit report claimed that Rs 120 billion had been outstanding against these locations, which were not deposited in government treasury, he added. The defence secretary, however, dispelled that impression, insisting that audit para had incorrectly been conceived. The measurement of military land used for commercial purposes at Lahore was not 166 acres but only 13 acres. The audit report also objected a National Logistic Cell (NLC) is a commercial organisation, therefore it is not authorised to occupy Defence Land free of cost at Gujranwala.
The defence secretary said that in the affairs of NLC, Ministry of Defence has been put aside. Currently, Planning and Development Division has financial control of NLC but administration control lies with the GHQ. To make it accountable to one institution, ministry of defence has called a meeting to be held next month. The meeting would be chaired by the Prime Minister. A decision on administrative and financial control of National Logistic Cell will be taken next month.
In another case, Pakistan Air Force at PAF Base Faisal, Karachi allotted military land to City School for a period of 25 years in 1994. The secretary admitted the gross violation of rules and informed the committee that they had annulled the contract with school and an inquiry would be conducted to fix responsibility for unauthorised allotment of land for commercial purposes. DG ML &C categorically informed the meeting that the responsibility of management of A-1 land fell under the preview of armed forces, and the Cantonment Board could not be made responsible for any misuse of land.