Education complex sealed third time this year

Police, FIA personnel escort employees from contested building

RAWALPINDI:

The recurring dispute between the Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB) and the education department over the ownership of properties in the commercial area of the city has witnessed a multifold increase in intensity, with law enforcement escorting education department personnel out of the building which was sealed.

This was the third time this year that ETPB has had the education department offices – including that of colleges, literacy and district education authority – sealed. On the two previous occasions, education department employees and teachers broke the seal and returned to the premises.

The offices in question are located in a 162-year-old structure spread over a vast area in the heart of the city’s most expensive neighbourhood. The education department says that it has had the location since 1957 when they acquired it in an auction.

During the latest raid, ETPB officials accompanied by police and personnel of the Federal Investigation Agency escorted officers and employees present there. They also sealed the roughly 100 rooms in the complex. The vehicles, including cars and motorcycles, were also removed from the complex and the main gate was sealed.

In the previous two instances, authorities had sealed only the main entrance to the complex.

The structure is located on the road side of Murree Road, considered most expensive commercial area of Rawalpindi. This complex is spread over five kanals and 12 marlas. Its approximate value, according to the open market, was said to be in the range of Rs1.5 trillion.

The documents available with the education department include a challan of the amount deposited in lieu of the property. The ETPB has rejected the document.

Meanwhile, members of the All Pakistan Clerks Association collective claim that an ‘influential group’ active in the city wanted to build a commercial plaza at the site which is why the ETPB were desperate to get the plot vacated, with some suggesting that it was a result of political and bureaucratic collusion.

The association personnel said they had lodged a complaint with the commissioner and his deputy. They also promised a vociferous protest on July 6 against ETPB’s ‘illegal occupation’ of their offices.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, July 6^th, 2023.