The Housing Ministry of Pakistan is keenly pursuing the case of its usurped land worth billion of rupees across Pakistan. The case was filed against land mafia of Pakistan, says Makhdoom Faisal Saleh Hayat, the Minister of Housing and Works.
A press conference was held on 8th March, 2012 to brief the press about latest happenings in this case. He disclosed that the Housing Ministry has written a letter to the Governor of Sind to personally look into this matter. He further disclosed that 80 percent of the 775 acres of Land has been taken over from the illegal occupants in the City of Quaid. The Minister also added that the ministry has huge land resources but to its dismay that most of them are in the custody of land mafia. The Ministry is making serious efforts to retrieve the land.
The Ministry had sent the case of Bhara Kahu land scandal to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) for further investigation. “A huge investment of the common people is stuck in the land fraud, and I request NAB authorities to help recover the amount as early as possible and take strict action against the culprits,” he said. Disclosing the inefficiency of the officials, he added that around 3,300 kanals were purchased in 2009 at inflated rates of Rs. 750,000 per kanal that is already far higher than the actual market price of the land that was about Rs. 45,000 per kanal.
Revealing further about the corruption cases regarding sales of land, he said that he was receiving frequent complaints from the Pak-PWD, and after thorough inquiry, corruption cases had been found in the roots of projects like the construction of the Mal-Fatyana Bridge in Toba Tek Singh and State Guesthouse in Karachi.
However, there is a little ray of hope for public in form of ongoing mega development projects in Rawalpindi that are expected to completed on time as per schedule. He also appreciated the completion of construction work of Golra Morr-Haji Camp Road. At the same time, he alerted the authorities of all civic bodies such as WASA, TMA and others to complete the final touchups around the Flyover by covering all the ditches and manholes till March 10.
