MUZAFFARABAD, Dec 11: AJK Rehabilitation, Relief and Evacuee Property Minister Amir Ghaffar Lone on Saturday directed the officials concerned to expedite the handing over of residential plots to refugees from held Jammu and Kashmir who have settled in Pakistan.

Mr Lone was informed at a meeting that since 1989 land had been purchased in 13 cities in Pakistan at a cost of Rs40 million to establish 16 housing colonies for the refugees.

Possession of plots had been given to refugees in three colonies in Gujranwala, Rawalpindi and Peshawar, he was told. Plots in two colonies in Jalalpur Jattan and Multan were ready for handing over and AJK Prime Minister Sardar Sikandar Hayat was likely to inaugurate the refugee colony in Multan Jan 9, he was told.

The minister was told that 90 per cent of allotment in the remaining colonies, two in Lahore and one each in Jhelum, Gujranwala, Sialkot, Gujrat, Mansehra, Haripur, Abbottabad, Hyderabad and Quetta, had been completed but development work could not be carried out there because of lack of resources.

Mr Lone directed the officials to inquire in writing from the refugee legislators if the people in their constituencies who had been allotted plots in those colonies were ready to take their possession on the basis of "as-is, where-is".

The minister pointed out that the resources of the AJK government were limited and it could not undertake developmental work in all the colonies at the same time. He expressed the hope that the refugees would inhabit the colonies.

Mr Lone, who represents the Kashmiri refugees in Sindh and Balochistan, instructed the officials to initiate proceedings for acquisition of land in Karachi by the end of the next month so that homeless Kashmiri families in the metropolis could be settled there.

He said he would shortly visit all the colonies to see the progress regarding the handing over of plots.

He directed the rehabilitation department to take steps for the welfare of 292 internally-displaced families comprising 1,740 people living in makeshift camps.

The families fled their homes along the Line of Control and they are not getting any subsistence allowance from the government.

Despite the ceasefire along the LoC, they cannot return to their homes because their areas are infested with landmines.

The minister ordered that the problem of graveyards in the Kashmiri refugee camps should be resolved at the earliest.

He was told that Rs164 million had been sanctioned to augment electricity supply to the camps.

The minister said he would try to get the subsistence allowance for the refugees enhanced.

He asked the rehabilitation, relief and custodian offices to computerize their record and interlink themselves for integration and transparency.