QAU tries to win back land

Administration alleged to have caved in to political pressure

ISLAMABAD:

The authorities have not been able to retrieve 230 acres of land reserved for Quaid-i-Azam University (QAU) from land grabbers despite repeated directions.

The present administration of the university have surrendered in the face of political pressure and has turned the matter into a cold storage while valuable land has been illegally occupied by influential people for the last several years, alleged a varsity representative.

According to the details, the issue of illegal occupation of the land meant for QAU, the topmost higher education institution of the country, remains unresolved to date. The issue has been raised by the president, the prime minister and other top officials while the university administration had also approached the court seeking resolution of the matter.

The court had explicitly referred to the Capital Development Authority (CDA) and directed the Islamabad Capital Territory Administration (ICTA) to assist in identification and retrieval of the varsity land. However, university sources claim that the land has not been identified by CDA.

A senior university official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told The Express Tribune that the issue has been put on hold and no further progress is being made after the new vice chancellor assumed incumbency.

The total land reserved for the university is 1,730 acres from which 1,500 acres are under possession of the university while the remaining 230 acres has been illegally occupied by influential people who have built their homes and farmhouses there, they alleged.

The official lamented that the current administration of QAU is completely silent on redeeming this valuable land belonging to the university. The varsity administration has surrendered in the face of political pressure, they added.

Earlier, QAU’s vice-chancellor had raised the issue at the high level, prompting the president, the prime minister as well as the chief justice of Pakistan to direct the authorities to relinquish the possession of the varsity’s land.

In 2019, an application filed by university officials stated that the varsity paid for 1,730 acres of land and the area was handed over to an educational institute on paper in 1972, but unoccupied possession was not given by the administrative authority.

It noted that QAU was continuously facing land grabbing as well as encroachment issues, besides settlements which were already there since the original land allocations in 1967 and 1972.

The application further stated that the QAU had lost control of over 600 acres of its land and that if land grabbing, encroachments and illegal occupation were not checked, in future there may not be a university campus worth the name.

Furthermore, it underscored that the alleged land grabbers and illegal occupants were politically influential individuals that have aggravated the situation for the varsity.

The application also noted that QAU approached almost every authority to help them resolve the issue, but to no avail.

 

 

Published in The Express Tribune, February 15^th, 2021.