A group of Christians has accused Caritas, the social arm of the Catholic Church, of defrauding them of their property and selling it to the Defence Housing Authority (DHA).
Some 100 people gathered at the Lahore Press Club under the banner of Masiha Millat Party (MMP) on Thursday and urged the Supreme Court and the Lahore High Court to help them. MMP head Aslam Sahotra demanded the courts take suo motu action and deliver justice to them. He said that in 1984 Caritas had established a residential colony in Sehaj Pal village on 342 kanals of land. Allotment letters for five-marla plots were given to 4,700 Christian families at the cost of Rs25,000 per plot. He said despite the payments, the possession of the plots was not given to the buyers. He said that Caritas, instead of handing over the plots to rightful owners, later sold the land to DHA at three times the price. Caritas did not return the original payments to the buyers, let alone the profits from the sale to DHA, he said.
Sahotra said that when the buyers demanded their money back, they were beaten up. He alleged that Caritas had also embezzled money from other poor Christian families in a similar manner in a residential colony at Balar village near Youhanabad. He said they took money from 2,200 families, but handed plots to less than 400 families.
Irfan Barkat, who is in charge of Caritas housing colonies denied the allegations. He said that some people with vested interests were trying to defame the charity. He said the affected allotees were returned their money with seven per cent interest. Caritas had handed over plots to 1,600 families who had paid the dues, he added.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 15th, 2011.
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