LAHORE: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has retrieved federal government’s properties worth about Rs2.5 billion from illegal occupants in Lahore and Gujranwala.

The agency has launched an operation against illegal occupation of Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB) properties, nonpayment of rent for years and violation of lease contracts.

An FIA team under the supervision of Lahore Director Mohammad Rizwan carried out the operation on Friday and Saturday along with the ETPB and police in Defence Housing Authority (DHA) and Model Town Lahore and Gujranwala city.

The agency sealed three plazas in DHA Lahore – two in phase V and one in Y block phase III. “The worth of these plazas is Rs500 million. A property, 499-XX DHA Lahore, worth Rs50m has also been repossessed after eviction of the illegal occupants,” an FIA official told Dawn on Saturday.

Furthermore, he said, a lessee of two residential properties in XX block DHA paid defaulted rent worth Rs9m on the spot. “The 200-kanal prime peri-urban ETPB land worth Rs300m has been retrieved from illegal occupants in Gujranwala city,” the official added.

He further said 23 kanals illegally occupied for over 20 years for supposedly a school in C block, Model Town, Lahore had been retrieved and its worth was Rs1bn. Some 67 shops in B and C blocks in Model Town, Lahore worth Rs450m were also sealed for defaulting ETPB rent.

“The total value of federal government properties retrieved over the last two days is around Rs2.5bn,” the official said, adding that the FIA’s operation would continue.

“However, some urban ETPB properties allotted to the front men of influential politicians and journalists in Lahore and elsewhere in the province have either defaulted, violated the lease agreement or illegally sold, but have yet to face action,” a source privy to the development told Dawn. He said the ETPB heads appointed by the PPP and PML-N were involved in allotting this land to oblige politicians and journalists.

The FIA recently registered 12 first information reports (FIRs) against two former ETPB chiefs -- Asif Hashmi and Siddiqul Farooq, 15 incumbent and five retired officials over their role in illegal award of urban properties on lease or their sale. Mr Farooq and Mr Hashmi are associated with the PML-N and PPP, respectively.

Most of the FIRs had been registered under sections 409 (criminal breach of trust, dishonest misappropriation of property), 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), and 109 (abatement) of the PPC r/w 5(2)47 PCA.

A two-judge Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed had last month heard a petition filed by Pakistan Hindu Council patron Dr Ramesh Kumar Vankwani, who complained that the court’s directives about protection of properties belonging to minority communities were not being implemented. The court ordered the FIA to conduct an inquiry.

Published in Dawn, December 26th, 2021