ISLAMABAD, Aug 22: A subcommittee of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Tuesday took serious notice of the allotment of costly plots to top military officials by the Capital Development Authority (CDA) in violation of rules and regulations.

It also said the matter could be sent to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) for appropriate action.

The subcommittee, headed by Pakistan Muslim League (PML) MNA from Faisalabad Lt-Col (retired) Ghulam Rasool Sahi, was informed by the officials of CDA and the interior ministry that 93 persons, including military officials and some personal staff members of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, were allotted plots in violation of rules by the CDA in 1993 causing a loss of over Rs160 million to the national exchequer.

The meeting was attended by Liaquat Baloch of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) and PML MNA Asiya Azeem.

According to the CDA officials, prominent among those who received the plots were former chief of the army staff Gen Abdul Waheed Kakar, former chief of the air staff Air Chief Marshal Farooq Feroze Khan, former chairman joint chiefs of staff committee Gen Shamim Alam, Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM) chairman and former military secretary to the then prime minister Lt-Gen Abdul Qayyum, and four ADCs of Ms Bhutto — Col Farooq, Capt Misbahul Islam, an air force employee Aqeel Bin Sharif and a civilian official Mohammad Nawaz Salim.

According to the rules, officers of above 20 grade are entitled to get plots measuring 600 square yards, but former army chief Gen Kakar was allotted a plot measuring 1,200 square yards.

The subcommittee directed the CDA to conduct an inquiry into these allotments and provide a complete list of such plots in two months. The PAC members took the notice when the CDA officials told them that there were no written directives from the prime minister for these allotments.

CDA Chairman Kamran Lashari and interior secretary Syed Kamal Shah also attended the meeting in which the PAC members reviewed various audit paras of the CDA accounts for the years 1997-98.