ISLAMABAD: The one-man commission constituted by the Supreme Court (SC) to implement the minorities’ rights has revealed that the Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB) recovered more than 25pc assets in three months.

The assets remained in illegal occupation for more than two decades.

The commission led by Dr Shoaib Suddle is the coordinating agency in the recovery drive between the ETPB and the FIA as well as the police departments of four provinces.

The first quarterly report compiled by the commission has highlighted that out of around Rs2.94 billion dues Rs694 million had been recovered up to March.

Headed by the Commission for Minority Rights constituted by the Supreme Court in 2019 was also given the task by the apex court to ensure that the dues of the ETPB are covered from the tenants of properties and the illegally occupied land too was retrieved.

Assets remained in illegal occupation for more than two decades

The new responsibilities were given to the commission by the SC around four

months back after audit report was submitted to the apex court that properties worth around Rs100 billion belonging to the ETPB have been illegally occupied across the country.

However, the officials of the ETPB had expressed their inability to retrieve the illegally occupied land on the grounds that the local police was not cooperating with them.

The audit report stated more than 15,000 acre land has been illegally occupied across country and Karachi tops the list among the seven zones of the ETPB, where around 9,954 acres have been illegally occupied. However, 1,436 acres have been retrieved. The Karachi Zone includes all of Sindh as well Balochistan province.

Out of 1,512 acres occupied in Multan zone, 237 acres have been taken back, in Faisalabad zone 270 acres recovered from encroachers out of 577 acres in Faisalabad zone, while in Rawalpindi zone 1,314 acres have been taken back from 2,351 acres occupied.

In Gujaranwala zone 282 acres had been occupied for decades and the government teams led by the Commission has retrieved 195 acres, 96 acres out of 204 acres occupied land has been brought under the government control in Lahore Zone.

However, all of five acres illegally occupied in Nankana Sahib zone was still in the hand of the encroacher.

The next meeting of the Commission to chalk out the plan for the quarter April-June is scheduled next week, chaired by Dr Shoaib Suddle, and chairman ETPB, IG police of all four provinces, officials of FIA and Auditor General Pakistan will participate in it.

Talking to Dawn, a senior official of the ETPB said that retrieving land had been difficult in the past for the Board as most of illegal occupants organised groups and used heavy handed tactics against the Board staff.

However, the backing of the local police and the FIA on the directives of the Supreme Court, the board has been successful to recover its land as well as dues, but many properties and rental recovery issues were still stuck up in court cases, the official added.

Published in Dawn, March 19th, 2023