ISLAMABAD: Official accommodation is being allotted based on merit and in compliance with the general waiting list, the minister for housing and works has said.

In a written response to a question raised by MNA Sher Akbar Khan in the National Assembly, Housing and Works Minister Tariq Bashir Cheema said it was not a fact that the Estate Office was making allotments in isolation of the general waiting list. He said all allotments are being made on the basis of the list.

To another question, the minister said there are 182 category-I government houses in Islamabad, of which 90 are in F-6/3, 51 in I-8/1, 16 in G-10/3, eight in F-8/1, four in F-7/1, two in F-8/3 and one each in G-8/2, F-6/1, F-7/2, F-7/3 and F-7/4.

He said category-I houses are allotted under rules 4(3), 6(7) and 7(1) of the 2002 Accommodation Allocation Rules. Rule 4(3) says the ministry will provide designated houses for specified posts which shall be allotted to the designated officers on an undertaking that they will vacate the house within three months of their transfer from the post and hand over possession of the house through the concerned inquiry office irrespective of whether alternate accommodation has been allotted to them.

Rule 6(7) says that federal secretaries (BPS-22) and officers in BPS-22 will be given priority in the allotment of accommodation if they are not in occupation of government accommodation elsewhere. Rule 7(1) states that the allotment of government-owned accommodation shall be made to the most senior FGS on the general waiting list of a particular class or category of accommodation.

Mr Cheema said the Estate Office had been updating the general waiting list for all government accommodation categories for some time. The list is maintained and updated by the Estate Office regularly and the question of discrepancies in the allotment of accommodations due to out of date general waiting list did not exist, he said.

Published in Dawn, January 17th, 2019