ISLAMABAD, June 22: Opposition members of the National Assembly on Friday alleged that senior army officers were involved in serious “irregularities and financial corruption” in the Defence Housing Authority (DHA) scheme in Lahore and a provincial minister was acting as a front man for them.

Speaking at a news conference at the Parliament House cafeteria, Liaqat Baloch and Farid Ahmed Piracha of the Muttahida Majlis-i- Amal (MMA), Khawaja Mohammad Asif of the Pakistan Muslim League- Nawaz (PML-N) and Syed Khurshid Shah of the People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPP) alleged that the DHA administration was causing billions of rupees loss to the national exchequer in connivance with senior army officers and government-backed private developers.

The opposition leaders said that Park View Cooperative Housing Society (PVCHS) was merged into the DHA on December 30, 2006 in violation of the Societies Cooperative Act as no permission was sought from any member of the society before this merger. They claimed that several people had already lost their lives in the clashes between the PVCHS and local land owners. They said a large number of cases were still pending in courts.

The opposition leaders said that the total area of PVCHS in the documents had been shown as 7,200 kanals whereas more than 2,800 kanal was not owned by the PVCHS. They alleged that the society had already sold plots on these 2,800 kanals and now the DHA had started receiving Rs800,000 per kanal as development charges from the people. They claimed that the total amount being collected as development charges would amount to Rs12 billion, and it would go into the pockets of a Punjab Minister, the DHA officials and some senior army officers who had brokered the deal.

They further said that the DHA had prepared a plan to construct 10-marla houses with the price of Rs7.4 million on this disputed land and its booking would be starting on Saturday morning. They alleged that 100 kanals of the land which had earlier been reserved for the construction of an interchange near Lahore Airport had been given to the DHA in violation of rules.

The opposition leaders termed the DHA as the “biggest land mafia” of real estate saying it had not paid any tax to the provincial government or the cantonment boards.

Khwaja Asif said that those so-called politicians who were accumulating wealth through illegal acts were preparing to “ buy” next elections.

Farid Piracha said that billions of rupees had been stuck up in DHA, Gwadar and Bahria projects. He said that people knew name of each and every general who were involved in these scams.

Syed Khurshid Shah said that the country had been run by several mafias such as stock market, sugar and cement for the last eight years. These mafias, he said, were present all over the country and operating under the regimes patronage.