Business of brown-nosing: PM’s former opening partner wants free plot

CDA says only way for the former club cricketer to get land in capital is to take part in an auction.

ISLAMABAD:

A man who once got himself run out to protect the incumbent prime minister’s wicket in a game of cricket thinks he deserves a plot for his trouble.

Now, city managers are in the process of writing a letter to the prime minister’s secretariat saying that playing cricket with the country’s premier does not qualify one for a residential plot in Islamabad.

Around two months ago, 38-year-old Abdul Hafiz, a former club cricketer, wrote an application to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif asking for a plot of land to be allotted to him.

In the first half of his application, Hafiz briefly recalled being Sharif’s teammate during his second tenure in office. To fortify his claim and to ensure the premier remembered, he cited how he and Sharif would open the innings while playing on the Prime Minister (PM) House grounds.

In the second half, he described how his life took a dramatic turn for the worse following the October 1999 coup. After narrating the sorry state of his finances, Hafiz requested his former opening partner to gift a plot for his widowed mother as they do not have a roof over their head.



After receiving the application, the PM’s Secretariat sent it to the Capital Development Authority (CDA) for “appropriate action”.

The application is currently with the CDA Estate Management office.

The office, in its response on the application, has said that under the CDA Land Disposal Regulation, plots are disposed of through open auction, and if the applicant is interested, he can participate in the upcoming auction and bid for a plot.

The response will be submitted to the PM Secretariat next Monday. Though, the reply is not in Hafiz’s favour, he says he will pursue the matter until its “logical end”.

Talking to The Express Tribune, Hafiz recalled the days when as part of the Redco club cricket team, he would visit the PM House to play cricket with Nawaz Sharif.

The Redco club team was part of the Redco Group, which in turn belongs to the family of Saifur Rehman, who was head of the Ehtesab Bureau during Sharif’s second tenure.

“Everyone knows Mian Sahib is fond of cricket, but he was in love with the game more than anything else during his 1997-99 tenure,” he said.

He recollects how Sharif would always be the opening batsman and Hafiz would be the non-striker. When asked about any interesting incidents they shared while playing, Hafiz said he once deliberately got run-out in a bid to save Sharif’s wicket.

“To entertain Mian Sahib, team members would sometimes drop catches and misfield so he could complete a run,” Hafiz said, adding that Sharif was relatively slow while running between the wickets.

Hafiz said he enjoyed playing cricket with Sharif for two years. “After the coup, I lost my job at Redco and have been jobless till today,” Hafiz said.

Hafiz said his family was evicted by their landlord for failing to pay rent. “I have a lot of self-respect and was not willing to ask the premier for help like this,” he said.

Hafiz believes Sharif will recognise him if they come face to face, which is what he’s trying to do after learning of CDA’s proposed response to his application.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 14^th, 2013.