July 24, 2003	Thursday	Jumadi-ul-Awwal 23, 1424

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ISLAMABAD, July 23: People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPP) MNA, Syed Nayyar Bokhari, lashed out at the Capital Development Authority (CDA) for its “inefficiency” and “poor performance” and demanded local government elections in the capital.

Talking to newsmen here on Wednesday, the PPP MNA opposed the CDA’s decision to remove kutchi abadis in the name of anti- encroachment drive.

He said the people living in kutchi abadis had great contributions in the construction and development of the federal capital as mostly labourers and masons had been living there for the past about four decades. “If the CDA wants to remove them, it should provide them an alternate place,” he added. He asked the CDA to differentiate between the encroachers and common people. He held the CDA responsible for existing encroachments in the city.

The PPP MNA said the CDA had shifted the dwellers of some kutchi abadis to Alipur Farash, where basic facilities were not available to the people. He said when Iesco was approached for electrification, it refused to supply electricity saying the CDA was not paying its dues.

He blamed the CDA officials for providing wrong information to the government and keeping the interior minister in dark on various issues. He said the CDA had not paid dues to the people whose lands it acquired about 40 years ago. Giving an example, he said, the CDA acquired about 46,000 kanal of land in Malpur some 40 years ago and promised to pay the residents at the rate of market price at that time. The residents had been waiting to get that amount for the past 40 years, he added.

The PPP MNA also criticized the performance of the District Development Committee and the Development and Management Committee of Hazrat Bari Imam Shrine. Mr Bokhari opposed the demand made by the committee to acquire 300 kanals to meet the expansion requirement of the shrine. He said the Bari Imam shrine was located on 105 kanal and the committee had failed to develop it. He said Data Darbar in Lahore had an area of 55 kanal and a beautiful complex had been constructed there. The committee had only constructed a boundary wall at the shrine in the past 20 years.

Mr Bokhari said the interior minister had told the National Assembly that the annual income of the shrines of Hazrat Bari Imam and Hazrat Sakhi Mehmood Badshah was over Rs156.4 million in the past 20 years against the expenditure of Rs65.5 million.

He said the Bari Imam committee consisted of members, who were not natives of Islamabad. He said there was no need for the District Development Committee and the elected representatives should be consulted before launching of development projects in the federal capital.

He asked the government to release Rs500 million announced by the then interior minister Moinuddin Haider for Islamabad during the election campaign in October 2002. He said the government had approved various projects worth Rs320 million in his constituency, but work could not be started even on a single project as funds were not being released.