Dasti expressed serious concerns on Butt’s defiance and summoned him in the next meeting. PHOTO: INP
ISLAMABAD:
The administrator of an elite private club has been asked to appear before a parliamentary panel or risk arrest.
The panel issued on Friday a final warning to Gun and Country Club Administrator Faisal Sakhi Butt after his repeated refusal to appear before it in person. The National Assembly Standing Committee on Capital Administration and Development (CAD) Chairman Jamshaid Dasti expressed serious concerns on Butt’s defiance and summoned him in the next meeting. Dasti said that if Butt does not appear, the Islamabad police chief would be ordered to arrest and produce him before the committee.
The Gun and Country Club was built on Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) land on November 18, 2002 through a resolution which was subsequently notified by the now-devolved Ministry of Sports, Culture and Tourism.
In October 2011, the Supreme Court took a suo motu action on a news report regarding the allotment of a huge chunk of land worth billions of rupees to the club at a throw away price of Rs10 million per acre.
Earlier, CDA Member Planning Mustafain Kazmi informed the committee that in 1977, PSB was allotted 145 acres in Zone III of the federal capital. The land for reserved in the Master Plan for sports and recreational purposes. Of the 145 acres, 44 were reserved for shooting ranges at the Pakistan Sports Complex.
He said that matter is already pending before the apex court. However the committee chairman summoned the officials in person.
The SC on January 31 summoned senior CDA Building Department officers to appear before it on February 12 with complete records of construction work on the disputed land.
SZABMU Bill approved
The same committee approved the Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Medical University (SZABMU) Bill 2012 and the establishment of the Capital University of Science and Technology.
Dasti informed the committee that the university will play a vital role in national development which is why a countrywide charter will be granted to it. SZABMU will be constructed at a cost of Rs3 billion, he added.
Capital Administration and Development (CAD) Minister Nazar Muhammad Gondal said that the establishment of the university will bring a revolution in the health sector.
He said hospitals in the capital city are overburdened due to the lack of facilities at hospitals in Rawalpindi and urged the Punjab chief minister to allocate funds to equip hospitals in his province with modern facilities.
The committee also directed CAD to explain the word “negligence” as used in the Injured Person Bill 2012. Once the bill is approved, doctors found guilty of medical negligence leading to the death of a patient will face up to one year imprisonment, Rs100,000 fine and cancellation of licences on the recommendation of a probe committee. The committee also directed the CDA to remove encroachments outside hospitals.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 2nd, 2013.
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