Dar’s house conversion into Panahgah: Musharraf’s attached farmhouse untouched

ISLAMABAD: The conversion of former Finance Minister Ishaq Dar’s Gulberg, Lahore, residence into a ‘Panahgah’ (shelter-home) by the Punjab government is reminiscent of making the Sharifs’ Model Town, Lahore house, the ‘Gosha’aye Aafiat’, an institution for elderly destitute people, nearly two decades back.

The previous setup was the military dictatorship that had resorted to this action out of vengeance against the Sharifs, who had then departed for Saudi Arabia to live in exile for seven years.

The present dispensation is a civilian arrangement that has taken the instant decision. While a quick action has been taken against Dar’s property, Musharraf’s Chak Shahzad farmhouse attached by two courts separately has not been touched by authorities to convert it into a shelter home for the poor although he has been sentenced to death and declared a fugitive. The quashment of his death penalty by the Lahore High Court (LHC) is questionable on the basis of judicial jurisdiction and is pending decision in the Supreme Court.

The Punjab administration confiscated Dar’s Gulberg residence in the light of the orders of an accountability court of Islamabad. On July 27 last year, the Lahore city district government took possession of 7-H, Hajvery House, Gulberg III belonging to Dar after the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) seized all of his movable and immovable assets in connection with a reference.

Last month, the Punjab government planned auctioning of the premises, but it could not do so after the Islamabad High Court (IHC) issued a stay order on a petition of Dar’s wife. However, when the officials had reached the venue to sell the property, nobody came forward to take part in the process.

In a tweet, Dar said that when “they failed to auction my house, Imran Niazi and Punjab government have made my residence a shelter-home which is contempt of court after the IHC decision.”

The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) condemned the move, but a federal minister said that the decision to convert Dar’s residence into a shelter home is the best news of the year.

The Musharraf government had attached the Sharif’s Model Town residence along with some industrial units owned by the family, including Ittefaq Foundary, Hudaibia Paper Mills and Chaudhry Sugar Mills, to recover certain bank loans from them.

The banks which had extended the loans have tried to sell out the industrial units but could not find any buyer. Even the Sharifs had been approached for offering them the units back through some front men, but the offer was declined.

Punjab Assembly Speaker Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, who is a prominent leader of the PML-Q, recently said that nobody would take part in the auction of Dar’s house because none would pick up the courage to do so. He recalled that when their own Lahore house had been put to auction several years back as the then government was subjecting his family to worst victimisation, nobody had come forward to bid for it.

Sometime after the Sharifs’ return from Jeddah ending their exile, the Model Town residence was returned to them. In 2012, it was made the new PML-N Central Secretariat.

The family dedicated this space for the party secretariat without any return. It was renovated and transformed into an office from a house where Nawaz Sharif, Shahbaz Sharif and Abbas Sharif were raised under the care and patronage of their father, Mian Muhammad Sharif.

Nawaz Sharif had himself inaugurated the party secretariat and recalled the time he had spent at this residence from childhood to adulthood besides reminiscing how his father was attached to it. The main structure was retained. Over a dozen rooms in the main compound were reshaped to meet the needs of an office. It has a big hall for party meetings and a lobby for the visitors. A separate section is equipped with the communications system. It was the same venue where Maryam Nawaz, flanked by Shahbaz Sharif and a number of other senior PML-N leaders had addressed a presser to release the famous audio-video of accountability judge Arshad Malik last year.

In the past, the single-storey building that witnessed many ups and downs along with the Sharif family served as prime minister’s office at the time of Nawaz Sharif’s premiership and as chief minister’s office for Shahbaz Sharif. It was from the Model Town residence where Begum Kalsoom Nawaz with the help of other members of the family had launched the movement against Musharraf after he had arrested the Sharifs following the October 1999 coup. The same premises had witnessed the wrath of the Manzoor Wattoo government, when there was a Pakistan People’s Party government in the Centre in 1993-96.

In November 2016, an Islamabad district and sessions judge attached Musharraf’s farmhouse as the special court trying the dictator on high treason charge declared him an absconder. The special tribunal ordered confiscation of his movable and immovable properties. According to the details submitted to the special court by the Interior Ministry, he operated nine bank accounts and owned seven immovable properties, including the farmhouse, land in the Army Housing Scheme in Karachi, Khayaban-i-Faisal, Defence Housing Authority (DHA) Karachi, Beach Street, DHA Islamabad and DHA Lahore.

Musharraf’s wife claims ownership of the farmhouse just like Dar’s spouse does about the Gulber residence, but the latter’s plea has not been accepted.

In January 2017, the Islamabad district administration informed a district and sessions court that Musharraf’s properties have been attached in compliance with court orders after he had been declared as a proclaimed offender and absconder in the murder case of Lal Masjid cleric Abdur Rashid Ghazi.