November 28, 2002	Thursday	Ramazan 22, 1423

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ISLAMABAD, Nov 27: Civilian and armed forces officials who recently vacated the Parliament Lodges have been declared defaulters of accommodation dues amounting to Rs1.5 million, sources in the CDA told Dawn.

The CDA has served notices on 70 defaulters asking them to pay arrears of the rent, the sources said.

The sources said most of the 220 lodges were occupied by army personnel including officials of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), National Reconstruction Bureau (NRB) and army monitoring teams (AMTs). Officials from other departments like Foreign Office, PWD, Central Board of Revenue, Customs and others were also residing in the lodges.

They said the authority would serve another notice on the defaulters within a couple of days. “If the officials concern do not pay their arrears even after receiving the second notice, their cases would be sent to the revenue collector and special magistrate of the CDA, Chaudhry Arshad Mehmood, for further action,” they said. However, the amount to be recovered from the former parliamentarians is stated to be Rs1.2 million as majority of them had paid their dues before the elections.

In the well-furnished lodges, facilities like hot and cold water, heating and cooling arrangement, bed sheets, blankets, and even tissue papers were provided to the inhabitants by the CDA.

The sources said the army personnel misused the lodges and also damaged its furnitures and other items.