Desperation: QAU writes to NAB against land grabbers

VC previously wrote to prime minister, cabinet

ISLAMABAD: A week after writing to the prime minister and the Cabinet Division over some parts of their land being encroached, the Quaid-e-Azam University (QAU) on Monday requested the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to investigate the matter.

The varsity wrote the letter after it claimed that the capital’s civic agency had failed to help resolve the issue owing to “vested interests and politicisation”.

Earlier, the varsity wrote similar letters to the prime minister’s office and to the federal cabinet against the alleged land grabbers, including former Senate chairman Nayyar Bokhari.

The varsity also issued an official hand out alleging that its officials have found new encroachments built by Bokhari, whose house – the varsity claims – is already built on its land. The former chairman, however, denies the allegation, claiming that he has documents to prove that the land belongs to him.



The varsity estimates that at least 200 acres of its land has been occupied from three sides by villagers and encroachments. The land has a market value of at least Rs1.6 billion.

On Monday, while asking the corruption watchdog to intervene, QAU said that for many years, the varsity had failed to convince the Capital Development Authority (CDA) or the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) Administration to take action or even conduct a serious enquiry.

“CDA refuses to demarcate QAU’s boundary even though it has received payment for 1,709 acres, leading to a disputed zone of 202 acres. Within the university campus, small villages have sprouted and are steadily encroaching on QAU land, disrupting and impeding the development of the university,” says the letter signed by QAU VC Dr Javed Ashraf.

“Adjacent to the university, along Third Avenue and the Diplomatic Enclave, CDA land has been occupied, and in spite of requests to the CDA to, at the very least, clear its own land from illegal occupation, no serious action has been forthcoming.”

The letter alleges “disgraceful collusion between the CDA and land grabbers, and that the only remedy is to view this problem, not through the benign lens of bureaucratic inertia and red tape, but through the more penetrating lens of accountability”.

The varsity also requested a meeting with the NAB officials to brief them in person and share the relevant documentation from QAU’s side.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 8^th, 2016.