LAHORE, Jan 18: The provincial government is suffering a loss of millions of rupees due to the sale of land in Faisalabad at a price lower than the market rate, PML-N legislator Rana Sanaullah told the house on Tuesday.
Through an adjournment motion, he demanded that the government should immediately ban sale proceeds of 106 acres of land given to M/s Kohinoor Industries in 1950 on a nominal price under the condition that it would not be used other than industrial purposes.
However, the firm got an order of the chief executive secretariat on July 14, 2003 for selling the land to retire its bank loans. Under the permission, the Punjab government was to get 20 per cent of the sale proceeds while 80 per cent share was to go to creditor banks. The government was bound to ensure transparency in the process.
The Rana alleged that with the connivance of Board of Revenue officials the land was being sold for Rs 100,000 per marla while market rate of the same was Rs1,000,000.
He said a loss of millions of rupees had already been caused to the provincial kitty as hundreds of marlas of land had so far been sold out while the process was continuing for the remaining land. He demanded an immediate ban on the sale process besides keeping his motion pending for discussion for the next session of the house.
AVENUE-I: Through another adjournment motion, PPP's Rana Aftab Ahmad Khan raised the issue of increase in development charges by the Lahore Development Authority (LDA) in its scheme for government employees, known as Avenue-I.
He said the authority had collected Rs4 billion in instalments at a rate of Rs540,000 per kanal from employees and now demanding Rs324,000 per kanal more was an injustice with poor government servants.
He alleged that the raise had been effected to benefit the land mafia by forcing the poor employees to sell their plots to it. He claimed that a real estate agency had started sending letters to the allottees offering them to purchase their plots if they did not have money to pay the extra cost.
The chair kept pending both the motions for the next session. On yet another motion moved by parliamentary secretary Perveen Sikandar Gill, Law and Local Government Minister Raja Basharat admitted that development funds were being embezzled by executing work on the projects which had already been completed in Data Gunj Bakhsh Town, Lahore.
He said reports had been sought from the assistant director of the local government, Lahore, and directives had been issued for immediately stopping of work on the projects. An inquiry had also been ordered to fix responsibility on the officials who allowed the irregularity, he added. The motion was disposed of as the mover did not press it.
PRIVATE MEMBERS DAY: The house voted out eight resolutions moved by the opposition as well as treasury members on Tuesday, the private members' day. The first resolution moved by ruling PML's Misbah Kokab advocate sought the appointment of at least one woman as family judge in family courts at each tehsil under the West Pakistan Family Court Act of 1964.
Opposing, Law Minister Raja Basharat said it was prerogative of the Lahore High Court to appoint judges in lower courts and the government could not interfere. PPP's Tanvir Ashraf Kaira demanded reimbursement of medical bills of retired government employees from their respective departments
MMA's Dr Waseem Akhtar wanted to recommend through his resolution to the provincial government to construct its own nuclear power plant after permission of the federal government.
Opposing it, Finance Minister Husnain Bahadur Dreshak said it was a complicated issue which could be solved by the federal government only. PML's Mohsin Leghari demanded establishment of degree colleges for boys and girls in the tribal area of Dera Ghazi Khan tehsil.
Education Minister Imran Masood opposed the resolution. He said the criteria for setting up a college was success of at least 100 boys and 50 girls in matriculation examination and then a college was established in a radius of 15 km of that area.
PML-N's Mehr Ishtiaq Ahmad sought work on war footing for constructing an overhead bridge at Yateem Khana Chowk, Multan Road, Lahore. Finance Minister Dreshak said a proposal was under consideration whether to construct an underpass, an overhead bridge or just widen the road. Work on the project would start as soon as a feasibility report was finalized.
PML-N's Rana Sanaullah, through an out of turn resolution, demanded immediate measures for house requisition facility of all Punjab government employees, following the precedent of the federal as well as the other three provincial governments.
Mr Dreshak said the facility was not available to Balochistan government's employees. Moreover, he said an additional sum of Rs28 billion would be required for providing the facility to all employees while an amount of Rs46.46 billion was already being spent in this respect.
Rana Sana argued that the sum would look meagre when seen in the perspective of the number of beneficiaries. The government could implement in three years if could not arrange that much amount in one financial year.
Earlier, the house rejected with a voice vote three out of four bills tabled by the opposition. The chair kept pending the fourth one, The Canal and Drainage (amendment) Bill 2002, for next session. It had been moved by Rao Ijaz Khan and Muhammad Yar Mammunka.
The other three were The Punjab Office of Ombudsman (amendment) Bill 2004, moved by MMA's Ehsanullah Waqas and others; The Canal and Drainage (amendment) Bill 2004, moved by PPP's Tanvir Ashraf Kaira, Jahanzeb Imtiaz Gill and others; and The Punjab Education Foundation (amendment) Bill 2004, moved by MMA's Waseem Akhtar and others.
Latter, the house was prorogued for an indefinite period. Speaker Afzal Sahi read out a notification of the Punjab governor to the effect.
