March 8, 2006	Wednesday	Safar 7, 1427

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ISLAMABAD, March 7: The sub-committee of the Senate Standing Committee on Labour, Manpower and Overseas Pakistanis has detected serious financial and administrative irregularities in the housing scheme launched by the Overseas Pakistanis Foundation (OPF) in Islamabad in 1994, Dawn learnt on Tuesday.

In its final report, a copy of which is available with Dawn, the sub-committee members expressed their concern over the fact that despite an expenditure of about Rs350 million on the scheme, there was no sign of development even after a lapse of 12 years.

“It has also been observed by the sub-committee that a part of the land is still disputed and several cases are in the courts and the so-called front men, through whom all payments were made, are seen nowhere on the ground,” says the report, a copy of which has also been sent to Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz for action against those responsible.

The sub-committee, headed by People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPP) Senator Enver Baig, will formally present the report before the main committee on Wednesday. Other members of the sub- committee are Senator Prof Mohammad Saeed Siddiqi and Senator Fauzia Fakharuz Zaman.

“It was also admitted by the OPF managing director that the purchase of land was made three to four times above the market rate of that time,” says the report.

The committee suggests that the prime minister should immediately convene a meeting of the minister concerned, OPF officials and members of the Senate committee with the IGP Islamabad, the chief commissioner and any other law-enforcement agency to find ways to apprehend the land mafia that had taken control of the state land.