Bhara Kahu housing scheme : Senate committee questions issuance of offer letters

Ministry of housing does not have possession of land for some 36,000 public employees

ISLAMABAD: A senate committee Monday questioned issuance of residential plots offer letters to some 36,000 government employees by the Ministry of Housing, even though currently it does not have land possession for the purpose.

A meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Housing and Works was held here at the Parliament House on Monday to discuss issues related to Bhara Kahu project of the Federal Government Employees Housing Foundation (FGEHF).

The senate committee has decided to constitute a sub-committee to look into the affairs of the project.

The committee meeting chaired by Senator Maulana Tanveerul Haq Thanvi also directed the FGEHF to provide all relevant documents to the subcommittee members for consideration of all aspects of the project.

The sub-committee will be headed by Senator Nauman Wazir Khattak, while its members included Senator Sajjad Hussain Turi and Senator Chaudhry Tanvir Khan.

The committee was also given task to examine the transparency and professionalism in the said project.

Earlier, the committee received detailed briefing from FGEHF officials about the consent/offer letters recently issued for Green Enclave-II, Phase-IV, Bara Kahu, Islamabad, to the government employees who registered themselves with FGEHF in 2009 for allotment of plots.

The committee was told that recently the Ministry of Interior had cancelled the process of acquiring land for the scheme under section IV of the relevant act.

The FGEHF officials informed the committee that 3,200 kanals land was purchased for phase-I and letters were issued to the members while in phase-II 36,000 applications were received.

Disputes with the developer of the scheme had been settled with the involvement of National Accountability Bureau (NAB), the committee was told. According to the decision the developer was bound to complete the work and till that time the foundation would not pay its full amount.

They said that the approval of the Capital Development Authority was required to get approved proposed lay out plan of the Bhara Kahu project.

Minister for Housing and Works Akram Khan Durrani said that the foundation had been working with missionary zeal.

Senator Chaudhary Tanveer Khan was of the view that the foundation was charging heavy amount from its members in the name of Bhara Kahu project.

He added the foundation should charge according to the market rate.

Tanveer asked how the foundation would manage land for the 36,000 letters it had issued in its Bhara Kahu Phase-II project.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 31^st, 2016.