Ministry directed to take action against illegal occupants of government residences

A parliamentary panel on Friday directed Ministry of Housing & Works and other quarters concerned to take stern action against illegal occupants of government residences recover full dues from them and get the buildings vacated at the earliest.
A subcommittee of the National Assembly Standing Committee on Housing and Works met here under the chairmanship Rajab Ali Khan Baloch and was also attended by Ghulam Sarwar Khan, Tahira Aurangzeb and Zahid Hussian Khan. The subcommittee has asked the Estate Office of Ministry of Housing to clear all the designated houses from occupants.
The subcommittee expressed its displeasure over constant occupation of flats by the officials of police and other government departments. Officials from the Ministry of Housing told the committee that at present a total of 412 government accommodations are under illegal occupation in the federal capital. They said that a number of police officials had filed cases with the courts to get legal cover to their occupations, but now the Supreme Court of Pakistan has ordered to get all such houses/flats vacated.
Responding to the committee directions, Estate Officer Sohail Sarwar Jura said that role of Capital Development Authority (CDA) and Pakistan Public Works Department (PWD) will be brought to an end to make allotment process transparent in future. Jura further said it is a difficult task to get government houses vacated from the trespassers and illegal occupants, but following the Supreme Court's decision, the department is making all-out efforts to do it.
The committee was informed that illegal occupants include officials from judiciary, police, CDA and other departments who are hand in glove with one another. The estate officer said that after the Supreme Court's directions, a total of 305 accommodations have been got vacated from the un-authorised /illegal occupants, adding that 60 such accommodations are still under illegal occupants.
According to a document submitted to the subcommittee by the CDA, out of total 200 flats in G-6, 130 are occupied by the capital police, 31 by the CDA officials and 39 by other government employees, including some private families. According to the document, houses designated for the CDA chairman and for two board members are in illegal occupation of the Estate Office which never paid rent for them.
A house in Islamabad's sector F-7/3 was allotted to former chairman CDA Nadeem Hassan Asif, but after his repatriation Asif did not vacate the house as it was again allotted to him by the Estate Office. The Estate Office, according to the CDA document, allotted two other houses designated for the board members in sector F-7 to bureaucrats in 90s who had not paid the rents.
The subcommittee directed the CDA to hold a meeting with the Estate Office to settle the issue with the Ministry of Housing. The members were surprised to know how CDA would get control of these flats as it had promised to hand them over to the Ministry of Housing on the direction of a former prime minister. The committee said that without the approval of the prime minister, the CDA cannot undo the decision of a former prime minister.