ISLAMABAD, Sept 23: The members of the treasury benches in the National Assembly on Tuesday accused the influential government employees of illegally occupying official residences in the capital.

Discussing a resolution moved by Chaudhry Anwar Ali Cheema, they urged the government to get these official residences vacated and take strict action against the illegal occupants. They said the illegal occupation of these official residences was the bane of the low grade government employees.

The members said there was a shortage of about 40,000 houses for government servants in Islamabad alone, while more than 6,000 houses were illegally occupied by influential government employees in the capital.

Participating in the inconclusive discussion, Chaudhry Anwar Ali Cheema alleged that majority of the illegal occupants were from the police department despite the fact that they were not entitled to official accommodation. He said the increasing demand of official accommodation had forced the deserving government employees to construct new houses in the private sector housing schemes.

The situation has compounded further with the stay orders secured by these illegal occupants from different courts only to prolong their illegal occupation, he added. He was of the view that the government should withhold the salaries and other allowances of these illegal occupants to get the official residence vacated.

Syed Haider Abbas Rizvi said the situation was not limited to Islamabad only, as the complaints of shortage were also widespread in other cities like Karachi and Lahore where the entitled employees were long awaiting official accommodation.

MQM MNA Nawab Mirza advocate suggested constitution of a committee of the Lower House to resolve the situation so that only deserving government employees could get these houses. He said the illegal occupants were enjoying the support and patronage of high officials.

Riaz Fatyana said Pakistan should be a welfare state where the state should provide basic needs including education, health and residential facilities free of cost to the citizens as these were the basic fundamental right of every individual.

Kashmala Tariq demanded production of a list of all the occupants of official residences into the House.

Earlier, a unanimously adopted motion on increase of agricultural inputs was referred to a standing committee of National Assembly on Food and Agriculture. Ghulam Sarwar, the mover, while moving a calling attention notice asked the government to discuss the unrest and anxiety among the farmers due to continuing increase in the prices of all the agriculture related inputs including fertiliser, seeds, pesticides, tractors and non-increase in the prices of the agricultural produce.

Parliamentary Secretary for Food and Agriculture Rajab Ali responding to the calling attention notice said Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali had already directed special measures to improve the agriculture sector. However, he said, the conditionalities of IMF and World Bank had forced Pakistan not to increase subsidy on various agriculture inputs that was being enjoyed by the farmers in India.