25 June 2004	Friday	06 Jamadi-ul-Awwal 1425

LAHORE, June 24: Colonies Minister Manazar Ranjha apparently backed out of his offer to PPP's Rana Aftab about allotting the latter a piece of land in Faisalabad if he could come up with a concrete offer.

The Rana, through an adjournment motion during the last session of the Punjab Assembly, had drawn attention of the government towards allotment of land in Faisalabad to a certain party on a rate much lower than the market price.

The government had received Rs500,000 per marla for the piece of land. Demanding suspension of the deal, he said either the government should sell this land in an open auction or he was ready to purchase the same at double the price offered by the first party.

The minister had said if the Rana would file a written application and give a bank guarantee, the department would consider his offer. On Thursday, Rana Aftab said he had sent an application through a courier service and sought a nod of the minister before producing a bank guarantee.

The minister said the department would reply to his letter in due course of time. However, he said, the PPP leader had offered a price of Rs1.5 million per marla. He also denied that any law had been violated in the allotment process or that the chief minister had relaxed rules for the purpose.

The mover challenged it and asked the chair to go through the record of previous proceedings to test the truth of minister's claim. He claimed that the colonies law had been violated in the allotment process. The speaker directed the mover to meet the minister in his office to settle the issue, and disposed of the motion.