ISLAMABAD, Aug 4: Federal Minister for Railways Sheikh Rashid Ahmed on Friday informed the National Assembly that his ministry was negotiating with the Pakistan Army to get 66 kanals of land in Rawalpindi vacated from the GHQ’s occupation.

In a written reply to a question of People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPP) MNA from Sargodha Tasneem Ahmed Qureshi, the railways minister said that the railways’ land measuring 66 kanals adjacent to Military Dairy Farm, Rawalpindi, was under the occupation of Housing Directorate (Adjutant General Branch) of the General Headquarters (GHQ).

The PPP MNA had asked the minister for railways “whether it was a fact that the railway land near Old Dairy Farm, Rawalpindi, has been occupied by Army Welfare Trust (AWT), if so, then what is the total area of the land.”

Mr Qureshi had further asked the minister to explain as to what steps were being taken to get the land vacated and was there any proposal to allot the said land to the civilian residents of that land?

The minister replied that the land was not in possession of the AWT, but it was under the occupation of the Housing Directorate of the GHQ and that negotiations were on. He did not give any details about how long would it take to finalise the negotiations.

The minister further said that there was no proposal under consideration to allot the said land to the civilian residents.

Replying to a question of Samia Raheel Qazi of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA), the minister said an amount of Rs7.205 billion had been spent on the repair of railway tracks in the last three and half years. He said a total of 1,015km dilapidated railway track had been repaired during the said period.