Unfair land deal: Bought at 22 times its value
Around 3,000 kanals were bought in the National Park area of the federal capital in 2009 for the PM’s housing scheme, even though construction was prohibited.
This property, which was worth Rs44,000 per kanal, it is claimed, was purchased by the Ministry of Housing at Rs950,000 per kanal from Green Trees Private Limited. And the beneficiaries of this alleged plunder of the national exchequer were bureaucrats and ministry officials.
The change of housing minister, however, landed this case in the Supreme Court (SC), which on Thursday directed Green Trees Pvt Ltd to submit a concise statement in Federal Government Employees Housing Foundation (FGEHF) land scam case within 10 days.
A three-member bench of the SC headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry heard the suo motu against billions of rupees corruption in purchasing of the land by the housing ministry.
The newly appointed Federal Minister for Housing and Works Syed Faisal Salah Hayat told the bench that he had no personal grudge with Green Trees, but huge irregularities had been done while finalising the deal. Hayat told the court that Green Trees had utilised Rs1.56 billion of a “poor nation” for the period of two years and seven months, “therefore the money should be returned with interest”.
Quoting interior ministry’s interim report into the case, Hayat said Green Trees signed the agreement for development of a housing scheme on April 1, 2009, while federal cabinet gave approval of construction in Zone-4, where the land was bought, later in 2010. “Such facts expose ulterior motives behind this dirty deal,” said the minister.
The deal was signed when Rehmatullah Kakar was federal minister of the housing ministry. “Being a minister I would be responsible if such irregularities surfaced in housing ministry, but I would suggest forming a commission to probe the influential bureaucrats and politicians thoroughly,” Faisal Saleh Hayat said in his petition.
Interim report also suggests that all directors of the FGEHF be sent to their parent organisation and the vacant posts be filled on merit.
On the advice given by the incumbent housing minister, Justice Chaudhry said that it is futile to ask the government to initiate criminal proceedings against negligent government officials. Justice Chaudhry told the Federal Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat that one of the officials against whom the SC had taken action had become secretary in housing ministry. Hayat remained silent to the comment.
After court proceedings, Hayat responded to the chief justice’s claims by talking to the media persons. He said that secretary of his ministry, Kamran Lashari was a competent, honest and wise bureaucrat who had changed the shape of Islamabad.
Afnan Kundi, a government lawyer, contended that they were ready for scrutiny but at the same time they had solid proof to rebut minister’s stance that huge corruption had been done in this deal. He said that CDA had not issued the NOC to its client therefore the land was not given to the department.
Raja Irshad, counsel for Green Trees, said that they met with the CDA Chairperson Imtiaz Inayat Elahi for NOC but he suggested them to meet “some Faisal Sakhi Butt” to finalise the pending issues. “But we refused to meet any private person,” he said.
The court said a commission would be constituted they examine the concise statement by Green Trees. The hearing was adjourned till July 11.
Earlier, a report of housing ministry had alleged that a top-level bureaucrat, who was also a member of executive committee that sanctioned the deal, is the brother of Green Trees’ owner.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 3rd, 2011.
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