The Senate Standing Committee on Maritime Affairs halted on Wednesday the allotment of land at the Karachi port with the chair observing that the sale of the land at much lesser value than it actual worth constituted "mega scandal" amounting to billions of rupees.
The committee met here with it Chairman Faisal Vawda in the chair. During the meeting, revealed that 500 acres of land at the Karachi, which had the market value of more than Rs60 billion was being given away for just Rs5 billion.
Vawda issued instructions to immediately stop the allotment of the port land. "There is a mega scandal in the allotment of land at the Karachi port," he said, adding that there was another piece of land measuring 200 acres which was also part of the scandal.
"The allotment will be made transparently in consultation with the SIFC [Special Investment Facilitation Council]," he said. "We are committed to the ideology of Pakistan first and politics later," Vawda told the committee.
During the meeting, Maritime Affairs Minister Qaiser Sheikh and the ministry secretary expressed their unawareness as to how this land transferred was to anyone without the permission of the board. However, Vawda made it clear that the current maritime affairs minister was not linked to the scandal.
Later, the committee asked the Port Qasim Authority (PQA), Karachi Port Trust (KPT) and the Maritime Affairs Ministry to provide details of the court cases regarding the port land. He said that the occupied land would be cleared in 50 days.
Speaking to the media after the committee meeting, Vawda said that "Army Chief General Syed Asim Munir has said that Pakistan comes first. So, it was very easy for me to do politics on", but added: "I am working for Pakistan, and today, we have given directives, not advice."
Vawda told the media persons that all the land transactions had been stopped and lists of the lands had been sought from the relevant authorities.
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