ISLAMABAD: The Quaid-i-Azam University (QAU) has decided to involve the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in the matter of encroachments on 200 acres of its land and the role of officers from the Capital Development Authority (CDA) and Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) revenue departments in the issue.

According to real estate agents, an acre of land in Bhara Kahu and near the university is worth Rs80 million and by that estimate, the 200 acres of the university’s land that has been encroached on are worth RS16 billion.

“We think the CDA and ICT’s revenue departments and the encroachers are working together and this collaboration between them has deprived the university of 200 acres of land,” a university official said.

He claimed that during the PPP government, some of the encroachers had also tried to legitimise their encroachment of the varsity’s land by using links in the CDA and ICT administration.

“We are going to ask NAB to investigate why the CDA has not demarcated our land despite repeated requests over the past 26 years,” he added.

QAU has also recently written to cabinet ministers and is not going to take up the matter with NAB.

When asked, university spokesperson Dr Ilhan Niaz said the university will be approaching NAB on Monday but did not share the details of the letter the university was going to send to the bureau.

CDA had allotted 1,709 acres of land in the 70s of which the university currently has possession of 1,500 acres.

Published in Dawn, November 7th, 2016