Apart from landlords, bureaucrats also encroaching land, PAC told

KARACHI:

After politicians and landlords, the bureaucrats in Sindh and their relatives also come with a red flag as they are also involved in land encroachment.

The police are unable to take action as these senior bureaucrats refused to evacuate 40,000 acres of forest land, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) was informed during a meeting on Wednesday.

The provincial watchdog committee was told that land has been encroached in Ghotki, Benazirabad, Khairpur, Thatta, Larkana, Sukkur, Kashmore, Naushero Feroz, Dadu and Jamshoro.  "Nearly 4,800 acres of forest land is under the occupation of powerful people in Benazirabad," the participants were told as they discussed the audit paras for the year 2009-2010.



As the officials went into detail about what efforts they have taken to recover the land, PAC chairperson Saleem Jalbani told forest department secretary Naila Wajid that her deputy secretary, Qazi Abdul Jabbar, who was incidentally present in the meeting, has allegedly occupied hundreds of acres in Ghotki district. "Is it true that you have occupied 2,000 acres in Ghotki district and are using it to cultivate various crops," he asked.

The officer appeared to look confused. "I have not occupied any land," he said. "Only 80 acres have been leased out to my brothers," he said.

MPA Nand Kumar, another member of the PAC, told Jabbar to stop misguiding them. "We know that you, being a forest officer, have occupied more than 2,000 acres in your home district of Ghotki," he said. "We want to know when you will evacuate this precious land," he said, referring to a report in a local newspaper.

The accused officer vehemently denied these allegations and insisted that the land was given to his brother in an auction. "There is no bar in the Constitution that the relatives of a forest officer cannot get land," he said.

The PAC members asked the secretary to constitute a committee and investigate. The secretary agreed but the deputy secretary interrupted. "This is an old issue. The matter has already been investigated by various agencies but no one has proved that we have 2,000 acres in our occupation." Nevertheless, Wajid assured the PAC that an impartial inquiry will be conducted.

The audit department officials mentioned that the chief conservator in the forest department is empowered to lease forest land through an auction or tender for up to five years for irrigation and 15 years for areas where dry farming is practised.

"During the audit, the chief conservator has shown Rs76 million against the lease of land during 2008-2009 and the department has not furnished the records," pointed out the audit director-general, Ghulam Akbar Sohu.

Jalbani also felt that defective and under estimation of precious government land has been causing losses. The department secretary said that the value of the forest land is determined as per the Sindh Agro-forestry policy, which needs to be revised.

After the meeting, the audit officials said that the forest department has embezzled around Rs19.6 million in their accounts. "There were a total of 10 audit paras [observations] involving Rs113.5 million, out of which only five concerns worth Rs94.4 million have been settled," said the director-general.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 27^th, 2014.