ISLAMABAD: A parliamentary committee on Wednesday expressed serious concern over encroachments on Evacuee Properties in Nankana Sahib district and summoned top officials of the religious affairs ministry for explanation.

The committee was apprised that 14,000 residential and commercial units have been built on the land of Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB) in Nankana Sahib district causing massive loss to the national exchequer.

The National Assembly’s standing committee on government assurances took serious notice and decided to summon the religious affairs and inter-faith harmony secretary, ETPB chairman and officials of the administration of Nankana Sahib district to get details of the issue.

The committee also directed the power and petroleum divisions not to issue NOCs for installation of electricity and gas meters on the encroached land. MNA Nuzhat Sadiq chaired the meeting in the Parliament House.

14,000 residential, commercial units built on ETPB land in Nankana Sahib, committee told

The additional secretary of religious affairs informed the committee that operations had been launched against encroachments. However, involvement of elected representatives of the district was needed to make the operations meaningful. He further apprised the committee that ETPB had initiated various measures including hiring of services of Survey of Pakistan and Suparco for physical survey of all properties and for acquiring their satellite imagery. He further said that regular anti-encroachment drives had been initiated and disciplinary action initiated against ETPB officials for their delinquency in duties.

Loadshedding in Karachi

The committee, while discussing massive unannounced loadshedding and over-billing in Karachi, directed for engagement of elected representatives to sort out the issues.

The committee was also of the view that a new electricity provider would encourage healthy competition and enhanced service delivery in Karachi. It directed for sticking to the approved loadshedding plan and zero un-announced power outages.

A Karachi Electric representative claimed that power theft through hooked connections and unpaid bills were hindering supply of electricity to residents of Karachi especially in Lyari area. He said that local representatives of UC had been engaged to persuade people to come under net metering, but the issue has remained unresolved. He claimed that as per directions of the committee, approved schedule of loadshedding was being followed and loadshedding in late night had been discontinued. The committee decided to take up the matter again in its next meeting.

The committee directed the ministry of health to submit summary for free treatment of cancer patients for approval of the federal cabinet.

The director general of health told the committee that a letter of intent had been signed with Roche for providing medical treatment to cancer patients in ICT, GB and AJK with 73pc contribution of Roche and 27pc by the government.

Published in Dawn, July 10th, 2025