RAWALPINDI, Aug 12: The defence ministry on Monday intervened to resolve the dispute between the Rawalpindi Cantonment Board (RCB) administration and former board members over the property tax issue, it has been learnt.

The defence secretary, Maj-Gen Hamid Nawaz, had called the former members and the RCB administration officials to explain their position about the tax issue. The meeting was held on the request of the ex-members who had raised objections over the increase in property tax by the cantonment board officials.

Six of the ex-members — Hafiz Hussain Ahmad Malik, Haji Ijaz, Malik Ghulam Raza, Chaudhry Khadim, Raja Irfan and Raza Malik — attended the meeting while the RCB administration was represented by the director-general, Military Lands and Cantonments, Maj-Gen Mohammad Javed, additional director-general ML&Cs Qazi Naeem Ahmad and RCB chief executive officer Khawaja Iftikhar Mir.

Both sides presented their points of view. The secretary heard the grievances of the ex-members and directed the RCB administration to recover the house tax arrears, pending since 1999, in instalments by 2005, the cantonment board’s ex-vice president Hafiz Hussain told Dawn.

The points raised by the ex-members include illegal imposition of development charges, award of RCB contracts without floating tenders, holding board meetings without quorum, issuing by-laws without the federal government’s approval, spending about 90 per cent of the budget on non-development activities, salaries and perks of the RCB officials and violating budget rules.

The defence secretary assured the ex-members that the problems of the cantonment would be solved on priority basis.