Politics of govt houses: Estate Office has no record of 2,880 residences

ISLAMABAD: Estate Office, a department that regulates allotment of official residences to federal government employees, has no record of the allottees of at least 2,880 government houses in Islamabad.

Last year, almost all record of the Estate Office was gutted in a fire. The office distributed 17,709 forms among occupants of government houses to recollect the data. But as of January 1 this year, it could collect data of only 14,829 houses.

This emerged during a recent meeting of the National Assembly Standing Committee on Housing and Works.

The committee was informed that 515 houses were still being illegally occupied by retired employees of various government departments while another 949 occupants were not paying rent to the Estate Office.

Employees who have retired but are still illegally occupying government houses include former IG Shoaib Suddle, former head of the cardiology department at the Polyclinic hospital Dr Akbar Nawaz, former chief inspector of the Estate Office Mirza Anwaar Baig, former FBR second secretary Muhammad Yusuf Khan, and former Federal Directorate of Education director Dr Ghulam Hussain Soho.

Another 29 houses are illegally occupied by families of employees who have died, the NA committee was informed. The office said it could not enforce its regulations since it lacked magistrate powers.

The standing committee has constituted a four-member sub-committee to investigate the lists of illegally occupied houses provided by the Estate Office, out-of-turn allotments and other issues concerning the Estate Office.

The probe body consists of MNAs Rajab Ali Baloch, Tahira Aurangzeb, Khalida Mansoor and Ghulam Sarwar Khan.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 13^th, 2016.