Housing scheme: Panel split over scrapping KPT lease deal

The pact had dealt a loss of Rs25b to the exchequer.

ISLAMABAD:

The National Assembly’s standing committee on ports and shipping split on Monday over a proposal for cancelling Karachi Port Trust’s (KPT) lease agreement which caused a loss of Rs 25 billion to the national exchequer.

The proposal for cancellation of the agreement was given by the panel’s chairman, PML-N’s Rana Mehmoodul Hassan, but it was opposed by members of the ruling PPP, Fauzia Wahab, Nazir Ahmed Bhughio and Nuaman Aslam Shaikh.

Meanwhile, KPT Chairperson Nasreen Haq said that the matter was sub judice. She informed the committee that the Sindh government had claimed ownership of the land, but it was property of the federal government given to the KPT which had later been leased out after getting federal government approval. Both parties had filed court cases against each other.

“We will try to save this land,” said Rana Mehmoodul Hassan while talking to this correspondent. Responding to a question about available options, he said: “We will try to appear before the court as a party.”

However, members of the committee expressed its concern over the lack of transparency in the allotment process and directed the KPT to provide a list of persons who were given plots in the KPT Officer Cooperative Housing Society. “The lists would reveal the names of many influential persons who allotted plots despite being members of the PKT,” said Hasan.

An audit report for financial year 2009-10 had showed that the KPT move to lease the land at a ground rent of 10 paisa per square yard for 99 years had caused a loss of Rs25 billion to the national exchequer.



Published in The Express Tribune, July 12^th, 2011.