December 19, 2002	Thursday	Shawwal 14, 1423

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FAISALABAD, Dec. 18: The valuable land of the Punjab Road Transport Authority (PRTA) located in the downtown is being sold at a throwaway price in collusion with an influential transporter which will cause a huge loss to the national exchequer.

Commonly known as the GST Intersection, the Government Transport Service had been launched from this seven acres of land in the 50s. During the period, a modern workshop, a driving school, a bus yard, a spacious and comfortable waiting room, ticket counters and offices were built to make it a beautiful complex. After 1988, the once busy bus stand turned into a desolate place due to the suspension of the Omni Bus and Government Transport Service.

Parts of its land were later occupied by vendors and traders. The costly tools and the workshop plant were also pilfered. Subsequently, some three years ago the traffic police grabbed the place and started parking the impounded vehicles.

Historically, this land itself has some distinctive features. In pre-partition era, it used to be a bus stand catering to the transport needs of the city. After partition, it was declared an evacuate property and was handed over to the Pakistan Road Transport Board.

To accommodate the offices and residences of the PRTB managers in the early 50s, a bungalow comprising three acres of land, where Col Ikramullah was residing, had been acquired.

Similarly, another bungalow of 11 kanals, where Chaudhry Khadim Mohyuddin was residing, was also obtained. The total covered area of the bus stand thus increased to 56 kanals after acquiring the two bungalows.

The PRTB name was changed on various occasions and finally it was known as the Old PRTB Bus Stand and Workshop, Railway Road.

The Punjab Privatization Board (PPB) has announced to hold auction of eight defunct depots of the Punjab Road Transport Authority in Sahiwal, Sargodha, Gujranwala, Sialkot, D.G. Khan, Jampur of Rajanpur district and Faisalabad. The auction is to be held on various dates from Dec 26 to Jan 4. The auction schedule for the Old PRTC Bus Stand and Workshop of Railway Road, Faisalabad, has been fixed on Dec 28.

Surprisingly, out of the 56 kanals of area belonging to this site, only 12 kanals and 13 marlas located in front of the Railway Road (dual carriageway of 80 feet) has been earmarked for the auction. And to cap it all, the PPB also announced that in the absence of any buyer, it would auction the land by equally distributing it into four parts.

In 1988, the PPB had announced to sell out the entire piece of land by carving a number of shops of equal area with passages. Such a move, according to developers and architects, was helpful for attracting a number of potential buyers to generate its maximum price.

However, the PPB’s corrupt mafia succeeded in putting this excellent auction plan in the cold storage, depriving the government treasury from huge funds.

To award the remaining land of 43 kanals to the influential transporter at throwaway prices, the corrupt mafia has cleverly offered the auctioning of only the front portion of its 12 kanals and 13 marlas. No other party would be in a position to buy the back portion of the land once the front portion was disposed of. Thus it would be easy for the ‘desired transporter’ to buy the rear land on nominal price.

The Punjab Road Transport Authority has already done such exercises with specially interpolated auction documents which remain safe from disciplinary actions.

The buyers gathered at the time of auction are informed that the auction has been cancelled and then the next date for auction is also announced. The land is then sold to the favourites at nominal prices on the original date.

The government had announced that detailed documents and proceedings of auctions amounting to or exceeding Rs50 million would be flashed on websites. But, the costly GTS land valuing over Rs1,500 million was being auctioned through underhand methods at throwaway prices.

Leading architects and land developers have urged the government to foil the conspiracy by cancelling the auction immediately and sell the GTS land in a transparent manner.