ISLAMABAD, Nov 5: The Estate Office (EO) has sought the help of President General Pervez Musharraf in getting 350 houses vacated, occupied illegally by officials of Islamabad police and the district administration, a source in the EO told Dawn on Monday.

The source said the EO had set October 31 as the deadline to the inspector-general police (IGP), Islamabad, Zaheer Ahmed, to get the houses vacated, but the police personnel were still not ready to vacate it.

The source said before the deadline of October 31, most of the police personnel had obtained stay orders from courts to avoid any action against them by the EO.

He said the number of government officials, waiting to get accommodation, had reached 35,000.

Replying to a question, he said an ordinance was being promulgated under which the officials of the EO would be empowered to take necessary action against the illegal occupants of the government houses.

The source said some 100 flats had been occupied illegally by the officials of Islamabad police and the district administration in sector G-9 alone.

“A large number of EO officials, who have been serving for the last 20 years, have no official accommodation,” an official of the EO said. He said in compliance with the government’s directives, the EO was struggling hard to eradicate all malpractices and corruption in the department and make allotment on merit.

He said besides police personnel, political leaders and retired officials of the Capital Development Authority had also been living illegally in the government houses for the past several years.