Big properties with petty values

A minister also holds properties in the name of family members

ISLAMABAD: Some of the federal cabinet members own properties and assets having a negligible value, details of the assets submitted by lawmakers with the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) have revealed.

Minister for Religious Affairs Sardar Muhammad Yousuf has declared an inherited residential house spread over two Kanals, valuing only Rs1.4 million.

According to the details of his assets submitted with the ECP, the minister also inherited 16 acres of agricultural lands worth only Rs1.2 million, besides owning another property in Mansehra, valuing Rs9.3 million.

The cumulatively worth of all of these properties comes to something around Rs11.9 million.



Interestingly, there is no change in the current value of all the properties of the federal minister.

While Yousuf owns no vehicle, his ECP declaration shows that he inherited eight tolas of gold and holds Rs25,220 cash in an NBP branch in Mansehra, Rs15,000 in his Alfalah Bank account and Rs2.3 million in his ABL account at Parliament House in Islamabad.

Khurram Dastagir Khan, who is the federal commerce minister, is another such “underprivileged” cabinet member. His declaration shows that he resides in a house in Gujranwala, an ancestral ‘gift’, which is currently worth just Rs1.4 million.

Another plot ‘gifted’ to him is registered in the name of his spouse and is currently worth Rs1.8 million.



‘Moveable assets’ owned by Khurram Dastagir Khan include a business in the federal capital worth just Rs99,349. He has capital worth Rs1.2 million, besides an unsecured loan of Rs5.05 million. He also owns a 2015 model vehicle current valued at Rs1.4 million. The federal minister also holds Rs1.2 million cash in a bank account -- and thus has total assets of nearly Rs7 million.

Ahsan Iqbal, the Federal Minister for Planning Development and Reforms, owns four acres of agricultural land, which he inherited from his family. He also owns a four-Kanal residential plot worth Rs1.1 million in Narowal.

Moreover, Iqbal owns eight acres of agriculture land, also inherited, in Sadiqabad in addition to another 40 acres of agricultural land, inherited.

The declared value of properties spread over 2.5 acres and a residential plot in Islamabad are worth Rs10 million. The stated worth of two properties owned by him is Rs11.1 million.



Federal Minister for Water and Power Khawaja Muhammad Asif, who also holds the portfolio of the defence ministry, holds 9,762 ‘preference shares’ worth Rs82,896 in K-Electric (KE) – a clear case of conflict of interests.

The minister also owns a flat in a commercial plaza on One Constitution Avenue, which has been closed down.

Asif is comparatively a ‘well-off’ federal minister in terms of his asset declaration. But most of his assets are listed under the head of ‘immovable property’ and held in his wife’s name.

His wife, it appears, holds eight different properties with a current value of nearly Rs200 million.



Another property, gifted to his son, is currently worth Rs15 million.

Asif, his ECP declaration shows, personally paid in advance Rs2 million for a plot in a housing society in Gujranwala.