June 19, 2007	Tuesday	Jamadi-us-Sani 03, 1428

PESHAWAR, June 18: Some influential politicians and bureaucrats have been allotted plots in Dera Ismail Khan from a big chunk of land earmarked for retired military personnel, well-placed sources have told Dawn.

A number of bigwigs in the provincial government are among the beneficiaries. The plots allotted to them have been marked as “For VIPs” in the site map.

The collector of D.I. Khan, Khan Bakhsh, told Dawn that the entire record had been shifted to the revenue department in Peshawar. He said he was not authorised to make any comments on the case.

Senior functionaries of the provincial revenue department confirmed the allotment of plots reserved for army personnel and civilians, but avoided disclosing their names.

“The provincial government had placed the land at the disposal of the GHQ and now it is army’s prerogative to lease it out to either the military personnel or civilians,” said a senior official.

Dawn investigations revealed that a criterion was set for allocation and distribution of lands acquired from the NWFP government among the veterans of the Kargil conflict, the heirs of those who laid down their lives and other retired personnel in Dera Ismail Khan.

According to the formula, heirs of a martyr with Nishan-i-Haider were entitled to 400 kanals of land.

By this yardstick, Captain Sher Khan and Hawaldar Lalik Jan, who were awarded Nishan-i-Haider after the Kargil conflict, had been allotted 400 kanals each in Rakh Grass.

But some civilians also ended up becoming the beneficiaries and were allotted 400 and 500 kanals, according to the revenue department record.

In one instance, the record shows that a plot of 500 kanals in the military land was allotted in Khasra on Dec 23, 2004.

Another plot measuring 400 kanals was allotted in Khasra on the same date. However, the names of the allottees have not been mentioned.

According to the sources, 3,000 kanals have been allotted to politicians and bureaucrats.

The provincial government handed over possession of 17,578 acres of state land, including reserved forests in the Rakh Grass area of D.I. Khan district, to the army in 2002 for the rehabilitation of families of retired personnel.

On the request of Military Farms and Remount Officer (MFRO), Multan Cantt, GHQ, Rawalpindi, sought possession of the land from the NWFP government in 2002.

The then cabinet, headed by Governor Syed Iftikhar Hussain Shah, transferred the land, including the reserved forests, to the army.

Before allotment to the military, according to the official record, Rakh Grass had already been declared as a reserved forest. The forest department had opposed the transfer of reserved forests to the military by Gen Iftikhar’s government.

“The department was kept in the dark and the lands were denotified by the provincial government without the consent of the department concerned,” an official of the forest department said.

Sources said the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal, after coming to power, reopened the case as it was reluctant to transfer the lands to the army. Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani had constituted a commission to look into the matter. But the government underwent a change of heart and pushed the matter under the carpet.

A Jamaat-i-Islami MPA, Dr Zakirullah Khan, submitted a question in the provincial assembly to seek the government’s opinion on the transfer of state land to the army and its onward distribution among civilians. The question remains pending and has not been taken up by the assembly.

“Some political stalwarts have been allotted lands in the area, but its record has been kept secret,” alleged Dr Zakir.

The MPA also alleged that the entire land had been transferred to the military without the approval of the cabinet.

Sources said the allotment of land to civilians was unearthed when the MFRO terminated a lease contract and immediately handed over its possession to Haji Shahzada, of Bannu district, the hometown of NWFP Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani.

Initially, MFRO gave over 3,000 kanals on one-year lease to a resident of Dera district at a rate of Rs100 per kanal per year. “I deposited one fourth of the total amount to the army and spent a huge amount on the levelling of the land for farming. But the MFRO terminated the lease agreement and handed over its possession to two individuals, Haji Shahzada and Maulvi Sharif,” claimed the affected party.

Sources claim that Haji Shahzada and Maulvi Sharif acted as front-men.

Some retired army personnel said civilians had been allotted lands in the area at prime locations. After allotment, the lands were prepared for farming at the expense of the government exchequer.

The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), despite promises to return with a statement after several repeated attempts and requests, did not respond to the report.

The NWFP Minister for Information and the government’s chief spokesman, Asif Iqbal Daudzai, said that a commission formed by the chief minister to look into the allotment of land to the military had yet to submit its report to the cabinet. “We are still waiting for it.”

Asked what could the government do now when the land had already been allotted, Mr Daudzai said the government would implement the recommendations of the commission, whatever those might be.

He denied any land had been allotted to ruling party figures and said that all such insinuations were mere blame-game. “We would have responded to these allegations had the matter come up for discussion in the provincial assembly.”