EDITORIAL: There is no dearth of self-aggrandisement schemes in this country, but the one devised by the Federal Government Employees Housing Authority (FGHEA) takes the cake. As disclosed by a press report, members of the Authority’s executive board have allowed themselves allotment of one kanal plot, each, in the new upscale F-14 and 15 sectors of Islamabad, deciding also to avail of the plots on a priority basis. If that was not objectionable enough the board, chaired by Minister for Housing and Works Tariq Bashir Cheema and comprising several senior bureaucrats, took care not to attract attention to its members. Their names do not appear on the list of 4,723 potential beneficiaries placed on the FGHEA website, among them members of superior and subordinate judiciary, bureaucrats, and journalists.
This though is not the only example of misuse of land acquired by the government for public use in the exercise of the power of eminent domain. In the not-too-distant past, residential plots in pricy areas were liberally doled out to influential individuals for buying political support. Going a step further in 2006, the then prime minister, Shaukat Aziz, decided to award a second plot to grade-22 officers and judges of superior courts. There was no other rationale for that other than to bring them pecuniary benefits at the expense of countless needy private citizens waiting in the line. That in turn energised the speculators who bought and sold those plots multiple times, pushing their cost further out of the reach of ordinary people. Last August, whilst hearing a public interest petition Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) noted that this had gone on without any legal cover, and ruled that if the government wanted to give extra plots to judges and civil servants it should legislate first. As for the petitioner’s plea for cancellation of allotments made 15 years ago, he directed the federal cabinet to look into it. That reminds one of the proverbial shutting of the door after the horse has bolted. The second plots, if not the first one, would have been sold and the proceeds pocketed and spent by now.
More importantly, last month acting on a petition, IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah suspended all of the 4,723 allotments in Islamabad’s two new sectors, including some 1,704 plots awarded to senior bureaucrats and top judges by FGHEA, in the list of which the latter had also quietly tucked in the number of its own executive board members’ plots without owner identity. The court also issued a notice to the Attorney General for Pakistan seeking explanation from the housing ministry on the policy of distribution of plots among a few segments of society. “Distribution of acquired land by the Authority is not in accordance with a policy based on public interest”, observed Justice Minallah. If the FGHEA executive board members or anyone else in a position of authority thought they could gather for themselves whatever benefits from the spoils system they seem to be in for a disappointment. The court’s intervention comes as an assurance that the land obtained in the name of public interest is to be used by the public rather than a privileged few.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021
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