Politics of Plot Allotment – concern of Ahmed Noorani

Rauf Klasra is doing a series of reports on the beneficiaries of politics of Plot Allotment during the last few years. The first piece was on the high and mighty judges who have been allotted plots in Islamabad, even though majority of them are not based in the capital. In yesterday’s Express Tribune, in a story titled “Journalists are no exceptions”. Off course, our dear friend Ahmed Noorani is now worried for his community  and judges whose lists have been published. In his act to balance the same, he has come up with a report that the Prime Minister has  allotted plots as gifts to “friends”. What is most distinguishable in his report to those of Rauf Klasra, that he has not given any names and only depends on “credible sources”. Rauf Klasra has published names. Ahmed Noorani hasn’t.

After his series of losses in the 18th Amendment Verdict and Asma Jahangir’s victory, Ahmed Noorani and his godfather, Ansar Abbasi, should for once declare who the sources are.

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) is in possession of a list of 172 journalists who were given plots in the federal capital in line with their two per cent quota in G-13 and G-14 sectors.

The five-year-old list has now been submitted to Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, after he had ordered the housing ministry to submit the list of plots allotted to bureaucrats, judges, politicians, and journalists since 1996.

The list of judges, bureaucrats and politicians has already been submitted and partially carried by The Express Tribune last week. The PAC was also told just how Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani had allotted plots to 16 judges of the Supreme Court of Pakistan during 2008-2010 under the “PM Special Assistance” package. Another list submitted before the PAC also revealed that 14 judges  of the SC had acquired two plots from the government in violation of the policy after giving two affidavits to testify that they did not have any plot in Islamabad.

Meanwhile, eyebrows are being raised as to why Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan did not order the defence ministry to provide a similar list detailing names of military generals who were allotted agricultural lands and plots in the DHA. Now a question is being asked as to why Nisar only preferred to seek lists of SC judges, politicians, bureaucrats and journalists from the housing and works ministry and why the powerful military elite were let off the hook.

But the list of Islamabad-based journalists, who were allotted flats in G-8 Markaz on the orders of then prime minister Benazir Bhutto, has not been submitted to the Public Accounts Committee. The names of those top journalists of Islamabad still remain undisclosed, as the ministry of housing and works said it was not in the possession of the list of journalists as the scheme was being launched and monitored by a separate body represented both by government officials and journalistic bodies.

The PAC has been informed that some 1,000 journalists of Islamabad had applied for plots after the government launched new sectors in Islamabad and invited applications from the general public, government servants and others as part of a uniform policy to give plots to those who were permanently living in Islamabad and did not have any property. A two per cent quota was also fixed for Islamabad-based journalists. A high-powered committee comprising government officials and senior journalists was formed which after careful scrutiny of the applicants, had recommended names of 172 journalists who were given plots against payments.

The list is available here:

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) is in possession of a list of 172 journalists who were given plots in the federal capital in line with their two per cent quota in G-13 and G-14 sectors. The names of journalists who were given plots against payments were:

Sarwar Munir Rao

Sohail Iqbal

Ayesha Haroon

Syed Fahd Hussain

Shakeel Ahmed Turabi

M Najeeb

Sarmad Salik

Sheikh Zamir Ahmed Qadri

Rana Qaiser

Absar Alam (he later returned the plot)

Hanif Sabir

Muhammad Malick

Nazir Naji

Shoaib Bhutta

Mustansar Javed

Kh Sharif Ahmed

Sami H Zubari

Aslam Javed

M. Ziauddin

Zafar Rashid

Muhammad Ilyas Bhatti

Noor Faizi

Khan Zaman Malik

Shaukat Ali

Syed M Qasim

Tahir Khan

Ikram Hoti

Syed Qamar Abbas

Shamim Sherrei Sardar

Shakil Sheikh

Abdul Aziz Muhammad

Abrar Ali Saeed

Syed Farhan Bokhari

Muhammad Ashraf

Muhammad Ishaq

Ch. Muhammad Ilyas

Rashida Begum Butt

Iftikhar Nazar

Muhammad Sarwar Awan

Muhammad Afzal Nadeem

Aqeel Ahmed

Ejaz Malik

Muhammad Fayyaz

Altaf Hussain Bhatti

Muhammad Ehsan Elahi

Ali Raza

Shahid Mahmood Malik

Zafar Malik

Wajih Siddiqi

Farman Ali

Muhammad Bilal

Arif Rana

Syed Itrat Hussain

Rana Ghulam Qadir

Saleem Khilji

Abdul Saleem

Safdar Hussain

Imran Nallam Ahmed

Abdur Rauf

Masood Majid Syed

Zahid Khawaja

Muhammad Akram

Syed Zargoon Shah

Kunwar Rashid Habib

Anis Ahmed

Waseem Akthar

Rao Khalid

Abdul Manan Haid

Jehangir Raja

Shaukat Rehman Malik

Muhammad Javed Akhtar

Akthar Munir

Muhammad Javed

Muhammad Nawal

Nasir Chishti

Malik Safdar

Abrar Mustafa

Muhammad Latif

Suleman Hidyat

Murad Shaz Khattack

Attaur Rehman Tahir

Maqsood Mehdi

Muhammad Jamil Khan

Kh Javed Bhatti

Kaleem Ahsan Shah

Khadim Husain

Muhammad Javed Iqbal Khakwani

Mazhar Ali Khan

Syed Qasir Sherazi

Karim Madad

Ghulam Hussain

Zia Shahid

Azam Ahmed Khan

Khalid Awan

Khalid Mahmood

Tanveer Shahzad

Seema Mir

Najumul Islam Usmani

Khalid Mustafa

Saleem Usmani

Syed Ali Nasir Jaffiri

Shahid Butt

Zulfikar Ghuman

Abdul Razak

Ali Imran

Syed Raza Shah

Muhammad Aslam

Shabir Khamid Bukhtawari

Shagufta Jabeen

Bashir Ahmed Shad

Syed Aswad Ulfat

Agha Mahrooz Haider

Nasir Iqbal

Masood Abdul Raheem

Raja Mahmood Bashir Usmani

Muhammad Ilyas Khan

Muhammad Mushtaq Ghuman

Mashkoor Hussain Shah

M Taimur

Masroor Mohsin Gilani

M Ibrahim Khan

M Shahbaz Khan

Amir Sajjad

Mumtaz Alvi

Azhar Jamal

Shakil Awan

Tanveer Alam

Habibur Rehman

Naveed Akram

Syed Azhar Hussain

Mubashir Raza

Arif Hussain

Jabbar Zakriya

Muhammad Farooq Khan

Rahat Naseem

Saeed Murad

Ali Imran Javed

Ejaz Khan

Munir Aziz

Muhammad Riyaz Akhtar

Rahat Munir

Jahanzeb

Muhamamd Afzal Malik

Afzal Nadeem

Muhammad Jameel Mirza

Abdul Mateen Khan

Hamidur Rehman

Saadat Bashir

Akhtar Ali Khan

Abdul Jabbar Khan

Khalid Mahmood

Muhammad Rizwan Khan

Rafiq Hussain Khan

Malik Muhammad Ilyas

Sohail Nashir

Uzair Khan

Zahid Hussain Hashwani

Four journalists Rauf Klasra, Amir Mateen, Khaleeq Kiani and Javed Ch were given plots in light of the Lahore High Court decision of 2006 in their favour after their names were deleted from the final list on the orders of the then prime minister Shaukat Aziz.

The list also contains the names of PTV employees who were given plots. They include Nazir Tabsum, Qamar Mohiuddin, Nisar Baloch, Syed Javed Ali, Khalid Iqbal Warriach, Syed Zulfiqar Ali Shah, Ayub Minhas, Asmatullah Khan Niazi, Muzamil Ahmed Khan, Majeed Afzal Khan (Sajan Khan), Awaid Butt, Rashid Baig, Ramzan Khalid, Muhammad Arshad Saleem, Muhammad Zakariya, Musadiq Kaleem, Arif Mahmood.

Ahmed Noorani’s Report:

PAC to probe plots gifted by PM to friends

ISLAMABAD: After receiving complete lists of beneficiaries of plots in the federal capital, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) is all set to probe illegal allotment of luxurious plots in Islamabad to seven influential persons by Prime Minister Gilani in early 2009.

A CDA inquiry committee, set up by the Supreme Court of Pakistan to probe these illegal allotments by Gilani, in its report available with The News has declared these allotments were made in violation of rules.

Those who applied for the plots were allotted under a well defined policy after preparing seniority lists according to the policy. However, these seven allotments by the present government were against the policy and in violation of rules.

Prime Minister Gilani has allotted plots to his near and dear ones through the Federal Government Employees Housing Foundation (FGEHF) in early 2009 in blatant violation of rules and regulations, especially setting aside the seniority lists made for this purpose.

First, Prime Minister Gilani allotted a plot to one of his close friends in January 2009 and when the scandal was broken by The News under the heading “Judges get plots of their choice” on February 6, 2009, three more influential persons were allotted plots to cover up the first allotment. Later, three more influential persons jumped in and were allotted plots of category-I in Sector G-14 of Islamabad.

It was argued that these four allotments were made in accordance with a Lahore High Court (LHC) judgment of 2006. However, no such judgment ordering allotment of plots existed at all. The judgment referred to was made on five different petitions of about 20 petitioners and the LHC disposed of all petitions without passing any order.

However, only four out of these total 20 petitioners were allotted plots. Most importantly, the exact words of the judgment are as follows: “The writ petitions are, therefore, disposed of with no order as to costs. But with further directions that any grievance raised by anybody with respect to allotment will be disposed of by the Foundation within 15 days from the date of the raising of objection.”

It is worth mentioning here that the inquiry committee set up by the Supreme Court also wrote in its report that no LHC order was ever passed to allot plots to any of these influential persons.

Credible sources in the PAC confirmed to The News that the Committee will probe the matter of illegal allotments thoroughly and will recommend to the government to cancel these, if concerned authorities failed to establish under which power and seniority list the prime minister allotted the plots in early 2009.

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