Illegal: Aleem accused of fraudulent land sale

Awami Workers Party takes up PTI chief Imran Khan’s challenge

LAHORE: Awami Workers’ Party (AWP) general secretary Farooq Tariq claimed on Thursday that Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s (PTI’s) Aleem Khan had illegally sold government land to citizens.

The AWP man made the remarks while speaking to newsmen. Tariq said the plots had been sold to Nazir Park residents at Jallo Park as part of Park View Society. He said registries provided to the Nazir Khan residents had Aleem’s signatures on them as Park View Society’s general secretary.

Tariq, a resident of Nazir Park, said 111 kanals land was disputed and nearly 200 families would be affected if it was not legally transferred to them. He said a revenue official had cancelled their transfer and registration documents in 2004. “The reason why we were given the land is that it was not evacuee property and thus unavailable for allotment,” he said. Tariq said most residents had approached the relevant patwari to establish whether Park View Society owned the land or not. He said they had been told that it did.

The AWP general secretary said they had tried in vain to contact society officials and Aleem after being informed that the land was not available for sale in 2004. He said that Lahore High Court (LHC) had stayed the demolition of houses constructed on the land in 2012. Tariq said that the residents had been stuck in a quagmire as they could not sell the land as the registries could not be transferred.

He said Aleem had shunned all responsibility for selling the land despite having signed legal documents. “We have accepted the challenge given by PTI chairman Imran Khan to provide documentary evidence of Aleem indulging in corruption and land grabbing,” Tariq said. He said he wanted all NA-122 constituents to know what Aleem was capable of doing. “We urge Khan to review the kind of candidates his party has been issuing tickets to,” Tariq said. He said that they would also take the registries to the National Accountability Bureau and the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).

Rejecting the claims, PTI’s Farrukh Javed said that the AWP had lost its moorings.

“People often make such claims when they lose their senses,” he said. Javed said that the assertions were baseless.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 2^nd, 2015.