Graft allegations: Cronies given over 2,400 acres of PQA land, says Nabil Gabol

Port authority has already cancelled allocations of 200 plots, investigation launched into the matter

ISLAMABAD:

More than 2,400 acres of land belonging to Port Qasim Authority (PQA) was allotted to politically connected individuals who used falsified documents to obtain plots at throwaway prices, according to allegations levelled on Monday by the former junior minister for ports and shipping.

In a meeting of the National Assembly Ports and Shipping Committee, former state minister Nabil Ahmad Gabol, who is currently a member of the committee, alleged that more than 80% of the 3,000 acres of land designated by the PQA for a public-private partnership to develop warehouses was allocated on the basis of political favours to well-connected individuals, many of whom used forged documents of shell companies in Dubai to buy the land at highly subsidised rates.



“All these expensive plots have been allotted since 2008 on a ‘political’ basis. As minister, I even cancelled a plot allocation for the brother of one of my then-cabinet colleagues on such fake documents,” said Gabol, implying that the fraud was perpetrated at the highest levels of government.

According to Gabol, the land – which was sold at subsidised prices so that the buyers would expand the storage and warehousing capacity at Port Qasim – was bought by these politically connected individuals who then sold the land off to third parties for much higher prices, netting a massive profit at the public’s expense.

Speaking to The Express Tribune, Gabol said that some people used shell companies in Dubai – which can be created for as little as 50,000 Emirati dirhams – to pretend that the land was being bought by foreign investors with experience in logistics.

“I took stand against this, but could not succeed due to the influence of the then-high-ups,” he said.

In response to Gabol’s allegations, committee chairman Ghulam Mustafa constituted a subcommittee under Gabol to investigate the matter. Following the committee’s initial probe, said Mustafa, the matter would be handed over to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) for further investigation and prosecution.

The chairman also said that wherever found, the subcommittee would cancel the plot allocations of any entity found to have used falsified documents to obtain the land. It was also decided that the committee will visit Port Qasim on February 27 to physically inspect the site of the proposed warehouse complex.

The plots were sold at a rate of Rs2.4 million per acre, far cheaper than the commercial rates for land in the Port Qasim area. The incumbent ports and shipping minister, Kamran Michael, said that part of the difficulty in taking immediate action against those who had submitted falsified documents was that the contracts signed with them during the Zardari administration do not include a clause for the cancellation of the contracts in case of misrepresentation by either party, a clause that is considered standard in most contracts.

“This is the reason we are facing difficulties in the courts for the plots previously allocated,” said Michael.

Testifying before the committee, PQA Chairman Agha Jan Akhtar said that many of the people who were allocated plots have yet to build the warehouses for which they were given the plots. As a result of that breach of contract, he said, the PQA has already cancelled the allocations for at least 200 plots. PQA will pay back the amount these people paid to obtain the plots, plus an interest rate equivalent to the rate on long-term government bonds.

The PQA board has also approved the cancellation of another 500 plots of land, with a combined area of 1,300 acres, where the entities allocated the land had not built the contractually obligated warehouses.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 24^th, 2015.