A parliamentary panel on Monday expressed its anger over the alleged massive irregularities in Overseas Pakistanis Foundation (OPF) Housing Scheme. They also questioned the undue delay in construction of various projects of Ministry of Overseas Pakistanis.
National Assembly Standing Committee on Overseas Pakistanis, while visiting the site of OPF Housing Scheme in Zone-V of Islamabad, observed that an amount of Rs2.4 billion was spent on this scheme but work on the project could not be completed despite lapse of several years. “We observed that it was a wrong decision of former authorities to give approval for the site selected for OPF Housing Scheme 18 years back,” observed MNA Farhat Muhammad Khan. “The site for the multi-billion scheme is non-feasible and uneven,” he said.
A better location could be selected at a cheaper rate as Rs800 million have already been deposited by the OPF to the Ministry of Labour and Manpower, observed the committee members. They also questioned the distribution of plots to some blue-eyed employees of OPF without keeping in mind the criteria set by the committee. The records for dozens of plots are missing, a member of the committee revealed.
In response to it, OPF officials justified that the delay in completion of work on the multi-billion project was due to various disputes citing land ownership, funds allocation and provision of water as the main ones. “Work on OFP Housing Scheme will be completed by March 2012 and all plots given to employees are on the record,” said acting Director General OPF Israr Khan Jamali. Pointing out specific issue of poor quality and substandard construction of OPF Public School Sanghar, committee chairperson Muhammad Jadam directed officials of OPF to solve the problems and hurdles coming in the way of completing the project. He also sought records from the Ministry of Overseas Pakistanis that according to him would uncover the people responsible for delay in the development of the scheme and action would be taken accordingly.
Giving details, OPF officials admitted that over 3,000 kanals of land had been identified years ago but possession of half of this area could not be taken so far. “Majority of the land had not been transferred to the society,” said MNA Rubina Saadat Qaimkhani. She also showed her deep concerns over poor performance of the officials of OPF and Ministry of Overseas Pakistanis. During the course of proceeding, NA committee acknowledged the services of the overseas Pakistanis as they were contributing $11 billion through foreign exchange per annum. The committee suggested that the OPF educational institutions should be improved and more and more institutions be setup in the country to facilitate the children of Overseas Pakistanis. Overseas Employment Corporation should explore the skilled and unskilled jobs positions for Pakistanis in other countries as well beside the Middle East, it recommended.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 12th, 2011.
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