The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has asked the Evacuee Property Trust Board (EPTB) to present a report on alleged misuse of authority by its chairman after the State Minister for National Harmony Akram Masih Gill levelled allegations of dirty tactics being applied to plunder the assets of non-Muslims.
The EPTB is responsible for managing the assets of non-Muslim communities and owns 109,000 acres of agriculture land and 15,849 buildings in the urban areas.
“I have to say with regret that the EPTB has sunk in the last three years and the assets of minorities have been plundered”, said Akram Masih Gill, as he started exposing the ill-practices in the department.
He said in 2008 when the present government took over the savings of the EPTB were Rs8 billion which have depleted to below Rs4 billion.
He further said that the chairman was splitting real estate under EPTB into five-kanal pieces - a benchmark set for a chairman to take an investment decision.
Gill further said that the investment related record of EPTB has disappeared. He said the chairman sold the minorities’ property.
Gill said Asif Hashmi was doling out EPTB’s savings for performing Umrah and Hajj.
EPTB Chairman Asif Hashmi told The Express Tribune that during the last three and a half years, no employee of the boards has gone on Hajj or Umrah.
He said that his appointment was ‘Till Further Orders,’ and the allegations levelled against him were baseless. He said that he would go to the court.
“I had refused to entertain some demands of Akram Masih Gill, after which he has been accusing me of wrongdoings,” Hashmi said.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 25th, 2012.
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