ISLAMABAD: A highly ranked Pakistani university has accused PPP stalwart and former Senate chairman Nayyar Hussain Bokhari of grabbing university land.

A statement issued by the Quaid-e-Azam University (QAU) on Sunday said: “The Resident Officer and the Vice Chancellor have confirmed that the former Chairman Senate, Nayyar Bokhari, has allegedly furthered his encroachment of QAU Estate.” It went on to say that details of the alleged encroachment were verified by the university’s resident officer.

“It is indicative of a wider national tragedy that Pakistan’s top university is being subjected to such treatment right under the nose of the Federal Government,” the statement said.

University to register formal complaints with concerned institutions today

University spokesperson Dr Ilhan Niaz told Dawn a team from QAU had spotted new encroachments, allegedly by Mr Bokhari, on university land and decided to take the matter up at the appropriate forum. He said the university will register formal complaints with the Islamabad Capital Territory administration and the concerned institutions and offices on Monday.

“We noted that a link road from the former [Senate] chairman’s home had been constructed on our land. Some pockets of our land are being levelled for new construction of what seems to be new houses and buildings,” Dr Niaz said.

Resident officer Dr Waseem Ahmed said the university has decided to resist further encroachments on QAU’s land. “It is our responsibility to protect our land,” he said.

Various encroachers have encroached upon over 200 acres of the university’s land, worth billions of rupees. The varsity currently has 1,507 acres land out of the 1,709 acres allotted to it by the Capital Development Authority (CDA).

Apart from the latest encroachment, the university spokesperson said they have faced various kinds of encroachments for decades because the CDA failed to demarcate their land.

“We have been asking the CDA to demarcate our land for years, but they are not paying any attention to our request,” Dr Ahmed said. In the absence of demarcation, he said, influential land grabbers have continued to encroach upon the university’s land.

In January, the university’s vice chancellor, Javed Ashraf, wrote to the CDA asking for the land to be demarcated and for those occupying over 400 kanals to be evicted, but the CDA has not acted on the request so far.

However, the CDA chairman, Islamabad Mayor Sheikh Ansar Aziz, has claimed the CDA will demarcate the land whenever QAU asks. “I can’t say anything about the past, but...we are ready to facilitate QAU,” he said.

Mr Bokhari’s brother, Syed Sibtul Haider Bokhari, has refused the QAU’s allegation.

He said: “We did not make any construction on university land.”

He also said the part of the land on which the aforementioned link road has been made “does not belong to QAU”.

Syed Sibtul Haider Bokhari, the president of PPP Islamabad district, said: “We have our own 56 kanals of land adjacent to the varsity’s land. We are law-abiding citizens and have never made any encroachment on university land.”

He added that if the university had any issues, it should move for fresh demarcation and if it was proved that their land had been encroached upon “we will hand over their land”, but “first they have to make their case”.

He said he and his brother had nothing to do with the new structures being built near the university.

Published in Dawn, October 31st, 2016