PESHAWAR: The Galiyat Development Authority has decided to cancel allotment of expensive Galiyat plots given to influential people at throwaway price and re-allot them at the current market rate.
The development comes after a legal dispute spanning around two decades over the award of lease of 100 precious plots in different Galiyat areas to influential people at cheap rate.
The decision in this respect was taken by the relevant Board of Authority recently.
GDA decides to re-allot 100 plots at current market rate
The GDA also issued notices to the existing leaseholders asking them to make the decision within 60 days regarding certain options given by the board including continuation of the lease on additional payment by the allottee in accordance with the market value.
From time to time, these allotments were made to influential people at prime Galiyat locations, including Nathiagali, Khanaspur and Changla Gali, without fulfilling the codal formalities at much below the market rate.
On Dec 26, 1996, the provincial cabinet had decided that all irregular allotment of bungalows and plots and other state assets, where government suffered financial loss, should be cancelled and that the amount should be refunded to the allottees.
In light of that decision, allotment of 13 plots was cancelled.
The allottees had entered into legal battles spread over many years.
Few years later, the government declared the allotment of 44 of the plots invalid observing formalities were not fulfilled and the prices were negligible compared to the market rates.
The affected allottees had also gone to different courts resulting in lengthy litigation.
Similarly, there are 42 plots of another category, which were occupied as additional land by those having adjacent property.
The plots were later illegally allotted to the occupants by the then GDA director general and director.
Finally, after the Supreme Court gave some orders in favour of the GDA, the BoA went ahead to take fresh decision of cancelling those allotments and put forward new terms and conditions to the allottees and in case of their non-acceptance these plots would be openly auctioned.
A meeting of the BoA was held on Oct 17, 2015, which decided to offer plots to the said allottees on different terms and conditions. The board decided “market rate of the plots which were declared invalid, cancelled and additional areas allotted be determined in the current year by a district valuation committee headed by the deputy commissioner, Abbottabad.”
The BoA further decided: “The current value of the plot as well as the amount paid by the owner of the plot be assessed. The value of payment made by the owner be deducted from the current market value of plot and the same may be intimated to the owner as additional payment or otherwise, which shall be paid in a specified time.”
“In case the owner fails to comply within the prescribed time frame, the plot may be cancelled and construction made by the allottee on the said plot be assessed by the C&W department to pay the dues along with the revaluation of the total money paid,” the board further decided.
In accordance with the decision of the BoA the district valuation committee has assessed market values of different plots.
According to the market rate, in Nathiagali a roadside plot is worth Rs18 million per kanal, whereas other plots are prices at Rs15 million per kanal.
In Khanspur, the rate of a roadside plot is Rs8 million per kanal and that of other plots is Rs7 million per kanal.
In Changla Gali, the plots near the road are priced at Rs12 million per kanal, while the price of other plots in the area is Rs9 million per kanal.
Noted among the allottees are former Khyber Pakhtunkhwa governor Amir Gulistan Janjua (one kanal and 10 marlas plot at the rate of Rs69,023 in 1990); former Pakistan Air Force chief Air Marshal Hakeemullah Khan (one kanal and 14 marlas plot at the rate of Rs85,514 in 1992); former IGP Masood Shah (five kanals and five marlas plot at the rate of Rs262,500 in 1991); retired Lt-General Saeed Qadir (one kanal and six marlas plot at the rate of Rs264,400 inIrregular allotment of precious Galiyat plots to be cancelled 1993); former Balochistan chief minister Mir Taj Mohammad Jamali (one kanal and five marlas plot at the rate of Rs128,000 in 1992); former provincial minister Arbab Ayub Jan (one kanal and 84 square feet plot at the rate of Rs507,755 in 1994 and that additional Rs2.52 million was paid in 2013), and others.
While deciding the appeal of an aggrieved allottee, Wajahat Mohammad Khan, the Supreme Court had directed the provincial government and the GDA last year to decide the matter in accordance with the law. Following that verdict, the BoA met and took decisions according to which the notice was issued to that appellant.
Mr Wajahat again moved the Supreme Court and filed a contempt of court petition.
However, on Jan 14 (Thursday), a three-member bench headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Anwar Zaheer Jamali disposed of the petition after documents on the BoA decisions were submitted to it.
KP advocate general Abdul Lateef Yousafzai said the BoA had not discriminated against anyone and that it had taken the decision across the board despite the pressure of influential persons.
He said the board had approved the re-allotment of plots at the current market rate. He added that previously 13 of the plots were cancelled and 44 were declared invalid, while 42 plots were additional land allotted at throwaway price.
The National Accountability Bureau had also conducted an inquiry into the matter when few years ago, the then Peshawar High Court Chief Justice Dost Mohammad Khan had asked it to do so.
The bureau had also named influential figures in its report and had claimed that those allotments were illegal and without legal formalities.
Published in Dawn, January 16th, 2016