June 06, 2007	Wednesday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 20, 1428

ISLAMABAD, June 5: The Ministry of Interior, responsible for supervising the private and cooperative housing schemes in the capital territory, has been rapped by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) for failing to manage its own housing scheme for 27 years, Dawn learnt on Tuesday.

NAB has intervened realising the problems of the members of the Ministry of Interior Employees Cooperative Housing Society — and other such schemes — who have purchased plots in Zone-V.

Administrator of MIECHS Yaqoob Awan confirmed that NAB had issued a circular to the ministry asking it to streamline its affairs.

Launched in 1984, the MIECHS has not been able to acquire the 5,000 kanals of land it required for all its members. “We still require 2,800 kanals,” the official said.

Mr Awan said the management was facing problems in getting the required land. A deal between the management of the scheme and some landlords for purchase of few hundred kanals of land, however, “has entered the final stage,” he assured.

MIECHS intentionally avoided development work on the land already acquired because that would have escalated the cost of adjacent land needed by the management, he explained.

A source in the interior ministry said the NAB had sent notices to the management of few housing schemes to streamline their affairs and ensure their early completion.

Some 41 private housing schemes have been registered in Islamabad, some of them are being regulated by the Capital Development Authority (CDA) and some by the local administration and both the departments are directly working under the interior ministry.

As top officials of the MIECHS were holding important posts in the interior ministry, the supervisory staff of CDA and the local administration did not dare to take any action against the ministry’s housing scheme. Other housing schemes were fair game for them though.

Some members who had paid all dues to the MIECHS on account of cost of their plot and development charges a decade ago said they were being asked to pay more by the management of the society. “We believe that additional amount was being levied to purchase more land,” they said.

They said the MIECHS was dogged by problems from its inception and had to be revived in 1992. “Yet till today the infrastructure work could not be started.”

It is learnt that the ministry of interior is facing problems in getting the required land in compact shape because all the surrounding land had been purchased by investors who are demanding huge amount for selling the land to the ministry.

However, according to Mr Awan MIECHS management had no monetary problems and it could purchase the required land by selling its own land.