ISLAMABAD, May 6: As many as 95 bureaucrats, including secretary housing Nasar Hayat and principal secretary to the prime minister Khwaja Mohammad Siddiq Akbar, are in a fix. Not because of any transfer or posting issue but their inability to get plots in a prime residential sector of Islamabad.

A source said all federal government officials from grade-I to grade-22 are eligible for a government plot as per the tenure of their service. The plots are allotted to them on merit and through balloting.

But every grade-22 officer is allotted an additional 500-square-yard plot under a package approved by former Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz in July 2006.

“The prime minister office is now looking for 100 to 120 acres of land in Zone-IV to accommodate the BS-22 officers at least for the next eight to 10 years,” a senior federal government official told Dawn on the condition of anonymity.

But it is not just the demand for land, the prime minister office has also desired that the plots should be allotted to these bureaucrats in a sector having ‘comparable land price with D-12’, said the source.

A letter issued by Nasar Hayat, the secretary housing and works, drew the attention of CDA Chairman Syed Tahir Shahbaz towards a meeting held to address the issue of residential plots for the federal secretaries.

In the letter, Mr Hayat stated: “A meeting was held with secretary cabinet Nargis Sethi in the chair at her office in March 2012 and it was decided that the CDA would provide 200 plots for future requirements in an area ‘comparable with sector D-12’ for allotment to BS-22 officers.”

The secretary housing asserted: “The CDA was asked to submit a compliance report by April 2012 but the report is still awaited.”

He added that the CDA management should provide the plots in any developed sector or allocate a piece of land in a comparable area (equivalent to sector D-12).

It may be mentioned that the secretary housing Nasar Hayat, principal secretary to the prime minister (PSPM) Khwaja Mohammad Siddiq Akbar, former PSPM and now special secretary Seerat Asghar, Auditor General of Pakistan Akhtar Buland Rana, former secretary Aziz Ahmed Bilour, Fauzia M. Sana and Atiya Mehmood from the Foreign Services of Pakistan, Taimoor Azmat Usman (secretariat group), Naveed Arif (secretariat group), Wajid Ali Durrani (police service of Pakistan), Kamran Ali Qureshi (secretariat group), Shahidullah Baig (special secretary) and Agha Nadeem (secretary information) are among the 95 officers looking for the residential plots.

Caretaker prime minister office

When contacted, an official at the prime minister secretariat added that a number of federal secretaries had approached Mr Siddiq Akbar, the principal secretary to the prime minister.

“The list of visitors and the officials having telephonic conversations with the PSPM on a daily basis is long because the bureaucrats are eager to have the allotment letters. Most of the secretaries are currently serving in the federal government,” said the official.

And because of the pressure of these bureaucrats, Mr Siddiq has also written a letter to the housing secretary, he added.

In his letter written on April 29, a copy available with Dawn, Mr Siddiq said: “Final proposal in concrete terms, earmarking of a particular piece of land and timeframe for development of the proposed plots may be submitted within three days for further examination and decision.”

Despite multiple attempts, the spokesman for the prime minister office, Shafqat Jalil, was not available for comment on the matter.

What can CDA do?

The cash-starved civic agency is finding it hard to arrange the residential plots comparable to the sector D-12.

“How can we establish a residential plot which may have a value or a location equal to D-12? It is close to impossible for any developer,” said a senior official in the CDA.

According to a document of the cabinet division, till now 206 bureaucrats have been allotted residential plots in sector D-12 while 236 others were given plots in G-13, 1-8 and D-12.

Raja Mukhtar, a property consultant, told Dawn that currently a 500 square-yard plot in D-12 cost almost Rs25 million while in sector G-13 its price was close to Rs10 million.

However, the CDA chairman, Syed Tahir Shahbaz, when contacted, said: “The judicial commission has recently stopped us from developing any new housing scheme in Zone-IV (Park Enclave Scheme area).”

But the CDA board is still looking for an appropriate piece of land to address the issue related to the allotment of residential plots to the federal bureaucracy and Supreme Court judges,” he maintained.

He said his department had currently pointed out a piece of land in Gohra Baaz close to Alipur Farash. “I hope the officials will be satisfied with the location,” he said.

“But it is quite difficult for us to get land comparable to sector D-12 in the city because D-12 is close to Margalla Hills having its own land importance.”

He said eve the planned sector C-14 and C-15 may also not have a plot with the same value of sector D-12.