Senate panel seeks vacation of illegally occupied Minister’s Enclave bungalows

ISLAMABAD: A Senate panel has sought vacation of bungalows and apartments of the elite ministers’ enclave of Islamabad being illegally occupied by non-entitled persons.

The Senate Standing Committee on Housing and Works will meet on March 4 to know about the compliance and implementation status of its earlier recommendations, made some time back, regarding the revised and updated list with the current status of allotments in the ministers’ enclave, and vacation of houses and apartments from non-entitled persons residing within one month.

There has always been an intense scramble among the federal ministers, ministers of state, advisers and special assistants to get bungalows allotted in the most protected prestigious ministers’ enclave in G-5 Sector. At times, disputes have also occurred over the allocation of these residences.

Sometime back, the committee directed authorities to have the houses in ministers’ enclave, which had been temporarily allotted to two top officials of a government department at the time of the interim government, vacated. It is pertinent to mention that this department nowadays is very tough on opposition parties and many political leaders had been behind the bars due to its actions. It was informed by the housing secretary about the illegal occupation of houses by the officials. “Only ministers or government officials of the ministerial rank may be given houses in the ministers’ enclave,” the secretary said. He said that the accommodations in the enclave are reserved only for the ministers as per the prevalent rules. However, three housing units are not currently counted in the available portfolio as they have been allocated to the top officials of the department, he added.

Committee Chairman Kabir Shahi observed that nine housing units in the ministers’ enclave were allotted in violation of rules and regulations, including houses given to special assistants to the prime minister. However, the secretary said that these assistants have been allocated houses as they have been granted status of federal minister rank by the Cabinet Division.

The chairman inquired whether allotment rules varied from one party to another. “Even NAB’s role has been different when dealing with the members of the ruling party as compared to those of opposition parties,” he said and added that all those “illegally” occupying official accommodations by using their political connections must be thrown out, as everyone was equal before law.

In its upcoming meeting, the Senate Committee on Housing and Works has also called for information regarding the status of payments made to the affectees of G-14/1 Sector of the federal capital and possession of plots given to them and details of the 1,540 grievance cases as well as the reasons for the inability to resolve the remaining 40 cases.

The Housing & Works Ministry will within a period of two months place proposals before the committee with regard to amicable resolution of illegal occupation of the government accommodation in the Federal Government Servants Colony, Sariab Road, Quetta, keeping in view the protection of interest of the occupants. And detailed briefing on ongoing, launched and announced projects of the Federal Government Housing Authority along with the current status and estimated date of completion of each project.

The Senate panel on National Food Security and Research getting together on March 4 has asked the Pakistan Agricultural Storage and Services Corporation (Passco) and Punjab and Sindh governments to brief on the arrangements made for setting up of purchase centres and dates as to when the purchase of wheat would start and the procurement targets for the two provinces.

The committee wants to know the price of wheat and fine “atta” prevailing in the market in all the four provinces. The progress report will also be submitted by the ministry of food security and research about the import of three million tons of wheat.

The Senate Standing Committee on Information Technology will be briefed by the National Response Centre for Cybercrime (NRCC) on the matter referred by Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani regarding defamation and loss to reputation of Senator Taj Muhammad Afridi by spreading of false and concocted allegations through fake email accounts; non-implementation of prevention of electronic crimes investigation rules, 2018 by the NRCC; and on the child abuse for filming and uploading videos on dark-web with reference to the case reported from the Rawat area of Rawalpindi.

The Senate committee on rules of procedure and privileges assembling on March 2 will take into consideration a motion sponsored by Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Senator Mushahidullah Khan against the ambassadors and other officers concerned posted in Pakistan mission in Doha and Paris and an allegation of dues of Rs2,700,000 against him on account of his stay in Punjab House, Islamabad.