LAHORE, April 9: The Evacuee Trust Property Board would evict its tenants and lessees refusing to pay reasonable rent and for the its properties, the ETPB chief, Lt-Gen Inayatullah Khan Niazi (retired), said on Tuesday.

Speaking to Dawn here, the chairman said a committee had proposed revised rent and lease rates for the Board properties after the Lahore High Court struck down the rates proposed earlier. The rates now proposed, he said, were higher than the old rates but around 50 per cent of the rates of adjoining properties. The EPTB, he said, was now determined to recover rent and lease money according to the revised schedule or eject the tenants/lessees.

Gen Niazi said the Board was receiving only Rs100 million per annum in rent and lease payments for around 100,000 acres of land and 45,000 residential and commercial units situated in 8,143 villages, towns and cities. He said almost all of the income was spent on the salaries and fringe benefits of its over 1,000 employees. This left no room for welfare activities.

Compared to the properties adjacent to the EPTB holdings, he said, the income was peanuts. Assessed by market standards, he said, the income would be no less than Rs1 billion per annum.

He pointed out that a 12-acre stretch of land situated in the middle of Gujranwala had been leased out to a leather industry owner for just Rs4,000 per month. Similarly, bungalows and houses in big cities had been rented out for as little as Rs50 per month. In some cases farm land was leased out for just a maund (40 kilogram) grain per acre per annum. In many cases shops in towns and cities were fetching only Rs10 to Rs12 per month. Shops, houses and flats on The Mall were rented for less than 10 per cent of the rent being charged for the adjoining properties.

The chairman said the EPTB was being denied fair rent for the evacuee trust properties as a result of a collusion between rent collectors and tenants/lessees. The rent collectors, he said, had not only fixed unfair rents but were also delaying the rent revisions. The tenants and lessees in Karachi, he said, had stopped staging demonstrations against him following the dismissal of four rent collectors.

He complained that 100 acres of land in Karachi had been encroached upon with the rent controllers’ collusion.

He said he had invited the National Accountability Bureau to look into the EPTB affairs and identify the corrupt officials. Following the inquiries, he said, 100 officials had already been dismissed and cases were in the pipeline against another 100.