GUJRAT: Traders in Jhelum have alleged that the officers carrying out the anti-encroachment drive in the city’s Civil Lines area spared a portion of the house of ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf MNA Farrukh Altaf, a cousin of federal information minister Fawad Chaudhry, that was “built on government land”.

However, a spokesman for the MNA claimed that the said piece of land had been purchased by the family of the then Punjab governor Chaudhry Altaf Hussain from the provincial government in 1995.

The local authorities in Jhelum launched the anti-encroachment drive on Saturday in the Civil Lines area and demolished various concrete structures built illegally in front of shops along the road.

However, the traders questioned the “impartiality” of drive when the anti-encroachment staff did not demolish a wall and front portion of the ruling party lawmakers’ residence, allegedly built on state land.

Dr Fazal, spokesman for the MNA, told Dawn on telephone that in fact the 8 marla piece of land in front of the ex-governor’s residence had been purchased by late Chaudhry Altaf’s family for around Rs475,000 with the approval of the Punjab Board of Revenue in 1995.

The then Jhelum deputy commissioner had transferred the land in the name of Mr Farrukha Altaf, son of the late governor, he added.

He said the last PML-N government had got an inquiry conducted into the matter and found no illegality in the deal.

He alleged that the probe was aimed to victimise Mr Farrukh Altaf because he was related to Mr Fawad Chaudhry, who is now federal information minister.

Meanwhile, Gujrat Deputy Commissioner Tauseef Dilshad said some 279 kanals of the government land had been retrieved from squatters across the district during the ongoing anti-encroachment drive.

He said out of the total land retrieved, some 229 kanals were owned by the irrigation and other departments in Sara-i-Alamgir alone, while the remaining land was got vacated in other parts of the district.

Published in Dawn, October 8th, 2018