RAWALPINDI, March 11: A state land measuring 88 kanals and 5 marlas worth Rs1,069 million, allotted to Rawalpindi General Hospital (RGH) is allegedly under illegal occupation, sources in the Commission working on the scandal told Dawn on Monday.

A part of the land is in commercial use, and the remaining portion is being utilized for residential purposes. In all, there are 219 individuals, who are currently in possession of this land.

Of these 219 people, 151 have voluntarily submitted their documents to the commission for verification. Scrutiny of three of these cases revealed that the documents were fake. The process is on to verify the remaining 148 documents referred to the commission.

Last year, the then FMCC Commander Maj-Gen Faheem Akhtar Khan during his visit to the hospital directed the administration to get the encroached land vacated from the occupants.

In pursuance of the commander’s directive the demarcation of the RGH land was completed for the first time by the deputy district officer (revenue) Asif Qureshi.

Three commissions were constituted to sort out the issue. These commissions have been merged into a single commission, which is presently working on the matter.

The commission has received no proofs of possession by another 68 occupants, who have so far not approached the commission. Presumably, these 68 people do not have any document to support their claims.

All efforts to demarcate the RGH land during the past several decades failed due to malafide intentions of the occupants and the revenue department. “We have substantial proof of involvement of influential politicians and revenue department officials in the whole scandal,” sources said.

The commission in one instance got 1 kanal and 18 marlas illegal mutation cancelled. In another case involving 2 kanal and 18 marlas, under possession of 7 people, mutations and entries in revenue department record were revoked. These people transferred the land in their name on a health department letter.

It would be difficult to get the land vacated even after proving that it was illegally occupied for two reasons; the large number of people occupying the land and the occupants paid hefty amounts for purchase of land to those who originally committed the fraud with them.”Therefore, the government will have to come to some sort of settlement with these people,” they presumed.