Colony on research fields: Housing society unacceptable, says PARC chief

CDA plans to make Rs150 billion by selling over 6,000 plots out of NARC land

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC) Chairperson Dr Iftikhar Ahmad has said that no housing society would be allowed on land of the National Agricultural Research Council (NARC) in Islamabad.

Addressing a function organised in connection with the Independence Day in Islamabad, he said promoting agriculture was necessary for the country’s economic progress.

NARC is part of the research set-up of the PARC. The Capital Development Authority (CDA) had come up with the idea to take back 1,400 acres of the NARC research filed and build a housing society over it. The authority has also proposed giving an alternative piece of land to the NARC.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had also given a go-ahead to the CDA for its plans to shore up an estimated Rs150 billion by establishing a housing colony NARC land. PARC scientists and environmentalists, however, have been resisting the move.

They also rejected the idea to move the research facility to another location. “It is height of ignorance that the policymakers do not understand that several labs including the Germplasm cannot be moved,” former adviser to NARC chairman, Nadeem Iqbal, had said at a press conference recently.

NARC is spread over an area of 1,395.2 acres (about 11,161 kanals) adjacent to Rawal Lake. The centre serves as a common platform for scientists working in different federal and provincial agricultural research centres. It houses experimental fields, laboratories, green houses, a gene bank, a library, a documentation centre, an auditorium, machinery and lab equipment repair workshops.

CDA’s Planning Wing had proposed that out of the 1,395.2 acres, some 1,250 acres could be used in developing a small sector with housing units over 625 acres, commercial activities on 60 acres and rest of the land would constitute open spaces, public buildings and for other future use.

CDA maintains that the area has become a hub of residential and commercial activities and “agriculture research does not appear to be the foremost appropriate activity on this site”.

“The performance and actual research being conducted at this facility can be assessed by the government through the relevant ministry or an independent evaluation firm,” CDA Chairman Maroof Afzal had written to the government.

Documents available with The Express Tribune show that the CDA intends to develop and sell out some 6,000 residential plots measuring one kanal out of NARC site that will generate an estimated revenue of Rs100 billion. The authority also calculated another Rs30 billion could be generated by selling out commercial property on the site.

The land was leased out to agriculture ministry for the establishment of the NARC on May 2, 1975 and its lease expired in 2005 and has not been renewed since. Speaking at Independence Day ceremony on Friday, the PARC chairperson said the CDA was eying the land to make money.

NARC Director General Mohammad Azeem Khan said all scientists were united to defend the NARC.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, August 16^th, 2015.