ISLAMABAD: The Federal Government Employees Housing Foundation (FGEHF) on Tuesday sought a parliamentary committee’s help to get permission from the Capital Development Authority (CDA) to sell commercial plots in G-14 otherwise each allottee would have to pay an additional amount of Rs5 million.

FGEHF Director General Waseem Hayat Bajwa said the layout plan of the commercial area had been submitted to the CDA two years ago but the authority was not approving it.

“We have to pay Rs5 billion against BuP of the affected people. Plots have been allotted to federal government employees and a majority of them have retired. It will not be possible for them to pay the additional amount of Rs5 million each,” he said, briefing the Senate Functional Committee on Government Assurances.

The committee was discussing the matter raised by Senator Khushbakht Shujaat regarding permission to the allottees of G-14/3 to construct their houses.

Govt employees allotted plots in sector cannot pay additional amount of Rs5m each to clear dues of affected people, official tells Senate body

Mr Bajwa said there were 680 plots in subsectors II and III of G-14 and they were ready for possession.

“However, land in G-14/1 could not be vacated because of the issue of BuP. We have to pay Rs5 billion to the affected people otherwise they are not ready to vacate the land. We don’t have any source of income apart from the conservancy charges and transfer fee of plots,” he said.

BuP is the cost of construction and material on the land. In most of the awards in the federal capital, the actual landowners are paid for BuP.

Independent Senator Dr Asad Ashraf suggested imposing a tax and using other means to generate resources.“Just like Defence Housing Authority you can get monthly payment from the allottees and that amount can be used for the development and other facilities in the sector,” he said.

However, Mr Bajwa said the best possible option was to auction commercial land in the sector. He sought help of the committee to get the layout plan approved from the CDA.

Committee Chairman Mohammad Tahir Bizinjo directed the secretary of the committee to summon CDA officials in the next meeting so that the issue would be addressed.

Briefing on NTS

Chief Executive Officer (CEO) National Testing Service (NTS) Dr Tayyab Akram told the committee that the impression NTS charged students and jobseekers heavy fees was not correct.

“In most of the cases we charge each candidate Rs400 to Rs500 because there are a number of other competitors in the market and they can win the contract if we charge more. Moreover, the National University of Medical Sciences charges Rs3,000 from each candidate but gives us only Rs800 for taking test of the students,” he said.

Senator Dr Asad Ashraf said it was a proof that everyone was earning money from students and candidates for jobs.

However, Dr Akram said the NTS was a not-for-profit company.

Published in Dawn, February 20th, 2019