‘Official abetted 12-kanal land-grab’

Punjab Cooperatives Board for Liquidation official appointed after retirement age.

LAHORE:

A group of land grabbers took over 12 kanals of agricultural land on the outskirts of the city worth millions of rupees with help from an official at the Punjab Cooperatives Board for Liquidation (PCBL), The Express Tribune has learnt.

Khushi Muhammad Nazar, who deals with property matters at the PCBL, denied helping the group headed by Abid and Nasir Kamboh take over the land in Kamahan during the first week of June.

But officials told The Tribune that Nazar had looked the other way as they had taken over the land and sectioned it into plots for sale.

“I am not backing any land mafia. Action will be taken against the land grabbers. It has come to the board’s attention that some locals have occupied land,” he said.

The officials said that Nazar had left government service in 1998 after reaching retirement age. But in 2009, the Chief Minster’s Secretariat appointed him the property in-charge at the PCBL on daily wages of Rs1,500 a day plus perks and privileges. He has the use of three official cars, including one for personal use. He occupies an official residence near the Model Town Kutchery even though he had retired from government service 13 years ago, which was against the rules, the official said, adding that Nazar’s advanced age and weak eyesight meant he also made many mistakes.

In February, the Punjab government had to sack seven retired officials it had re-employed on contract in relaxation of the Re-employment Policy 2003 and Contract Appointment Policy 2004, on the directions of the Supreme Court. But Nazar was still at work because he was backed by a senior officer in the Chief Minister’s Secretariat, the official added.

According to the official record, the Pasban Cooperative Finance Corporation owned 1,153 kanals of agriculture land in the suburban area of Kamahan.

The PCBL took over this land when it was formed in 1993 to take over the assets of the former cooperative finance corporations, which went bankrupt in 1991.

Nazar said he was hired by the PCBL on the direction of the CM’s Secretariat to assist in revenue and ownership matters, particularly concerning land owned by the board.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 30^th, 2011.