LAHORE, Oct 5: The size of official residences for officers at the district and tehsil levels should be reduced to use state land for other better purposes.

The demand was made by Rana Aftab Ahmed Khan, Dr Syed Waseem, Raja Riaz and other parliamentarians during the question hour in the Punjab Assembly on Thursday.

“There are large houses spread over 10-11 acres for officers of district administration and police at district and tehsil levels.

“Such huge accommodations are neither affordable nor suitable in a country like ours,’ observed Rana Aftab, a legislator from Faisalabad.

Rana Riaz, also from Faisalabad, said officers enjoying such accommodations have rented out most of the open spaces for nurseries etc., to earn money at the cost of national exchequer.

Syed Waseem remarked that in 1998 the federal government had decided to cut down the size of such residences in the four provinces, but the decision could not be implemented.

He suggested that the government of Punjab should take the lead in this regard, as it did in providing exemption of property tax on five marla houses and the other provinces had followed the suit.

Punjab Minister for Colonies Manazar Ali Ranjha said the matter did not fall in his department’s jurisdiction directly. —APP