HYDERABAD: The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Sindh Assembly has taken notice of delay in handing over plots and completing development works in Gulistan-i-Sarmast, a low-cost housing scheme of the Hyderabad Development Authority (HDA).

A letter was sent to the additional chief secretary of local government department and director general of HDA in this regard.

The PAC has expressed its dismay over the delay, which it felt has rendered the housing scheme largely ineffective despite billions of rupees having been collected from allottees and recorded as expenditure on development works.

The committee has expressed its serious concern over continued lack of basic amenities even after collecting Rs7 billion under heads of allotment, cost of land and development charges a period of more than a decade.

Notes over Rs7bn collected from allottees but no utilities have been provided since 2009; seeks inquiry report within two weeks

There has been no water and electricity supply, nor has there been other essential services in the scheme so far, it noted.

The PAC has asked the local government ACS and HDA DG to conduct an inquiry and submit a detailed report to it within the next two weeks. The report should fix responsibility of the delay for perusal and orders of the committee.

Official response

In line with PAC’s letter, the HDA secretary, on behalf of its DG, has written to the director of planning & development control (P&DC), project director (housing) and additional director (audit & accounts) asking them to submit stage-wise collection of amounts from the allottees; outstanding dues recoverable from allottees; details of development works carried out and corresponding utilisation of funds; details of pending development works alongwith estimated funds required for completion; and current status of overall works.

A Rs13bn project

The housing scheme in question has been a subject of public debate ever since it was launched in 2009 at an estimated cost of Rs13 billion to be financed solely through revenues from the sale proceeds of around 33,500 plots of 100-400 sq.yds, both residential and commercial.

The then district nazim, Kan­war Naveed Jamil, of the Mut­tahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) had launched the scheme but it could not be completed as yet.

During the period, many the HDA was run by many DGs, including Iqbal Memon, Masood Jumani, Noor Mohammad Leghari, Ghulam Mohammad Kaimkhani, Mohammad Sohail, Dr Badar Jamil Mandro, Asghar Ghanghro and others. Even NAB had intervened at one stage and some arrests were also made but the project remained in the doldrums.

Unnecessary expenditures

The funds generated for the scheme were spent on useless beautification work and partly diverted into the head of HDA employees’ salaries.

Sources in the HDA alleged that some officials of the authority earned plenty of money through duplicate allotment files, leaving the plots’ genuine allottees in the lurch. Some allottees had to move the Sindh High Court over the issue.

Last year Chief Secretary Syed Asif Hyder Shah had asked the then Hyderabad commissioner, Bilal Memon, for a detailed report on the scheme. In his report submitted in July 2024, Mr Memon stated that the scheme was launched without approved PC-I. He had termed the scheme “a classic case of public sector development failure”.

He had mentioned that 75pc external road works were completed; 60pc internal road works completed; 60pc internal and external water supply works completed; 10pc internal sewerage works completed; and 80pc water pumping station completed.

He had also informed the CS that Rs8bn was collected as revenue from the general public against installments; Rs1bn was paid to Sindh government as partial cost of land; Rs3bfor development expenditure; and Rs90m to SSGC. The HDA was left with less than 50pc out of Rs8bn revenues.

He had indicated that due to inflationary trends, remedial and leftover works may now cost 8 to 10 times higher than the original estimates.

Published in Dawn, October 5th, 2025