Backlash fears force govt to put DHA bill on hold

[Salman]

ISLAMABAD: Fearing a backlash from the opposition, the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) has once again put on hold the controversial Defence Housing Authority (DHA) bill aimed at establishing a posh housing society in Islamabad.

It was only after the strong reaction of the PML-N legislators, led by Leader of Opposition Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, that chief whip of the PPP and Minister for Religious Affairs Syed Khursheed Shah announced on the floor of the National Assembly last week that the bill was being deferred. The minister said the government would table it again on Monday.

However, sources told Dawn on Sunday that the bill had not been included in the assembly’s agenda for the day.

Mr Shah said the bill had been deferred only for a couple of days and the PML-N had promised to sit with the PPP on Monday to discuss it. He said the government wanted to get the bill through on Tuesday, a private members’ day.

The bill has been hanging in the air for almost seven years despite its approval by the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Defence in December 2009.

After holding the bill in the cold storage for 21 months, the government had brought it back on the agenda on Oct 13.

But there was rumpus in the assembly because of a clash between members of the PML-N and Muttahida Qaumi Movement when Chaudhry Nisar, who had taken the floor to oppose the bill, levelled some allegations against the MQM.

He warned the house that his party would even “physically block” the passage of what he termed an unconstitutional bill.

“And not just constitutional violations but the bill extends preferential treatment to a private housing society of the country’s biggest land mafia.” He said the democratic government was bringing a bill which even military dictators like Ziaul Haq and Pervez Musharraf could not dare present in assembly.

He said if the government tried to bulldoze the bill there could be a situation like that witnessed in parliaments in Taiwan, Japan and South Korea.

The PML-N leader said the bill was being presented in violation of the Constitution because it dealt with a matter concerning a provincial government. Secondly, he said, the government should not give preferential treatment to a particular housing society as there were thousands of other such societies. “Do not force us to take the bill to courts. We want to settle things in parliament.”

After the passage of the bill by the standing committee two years ago, Chaudhry Nisar had said at a news conference that the bill would have a negative impact on the war against terrorism and tarnish the image of the armed forces.

Chaudhry Nisar alleged that the bill was being approved only to benefit one person who had already occupied huge pieces of land. He said the person was close to former president Musharraf and nowadays was frequently seen in the presidency.

He alleged that through the bill the government wanted to give complete control of over 178,000 kanals of land belonging to the people of his constituency to the DHA, where the federal and provincial governments would have no say.

Referring to Section 23 of the bill, he said it would be a big joke that the employees of the private housing society would be given the status of government servants.

Chaudhry Nisar said he had raised the issue before the General Headquarters (GHQ), but to little avail.

Replying to a question, he said there was need to revisit the laws under which similar DHAs had been set up in Karachi and Lahore.

The PML-N has expressed its concern over a clause in the bill under which the authority, which is mainly being established for personnel of the armed forces, will have the power to make municipal laws of its own.

The DHA Ordinance was originally promulgated by former president Musharraf in February 2005, but the then PML-Q government failed to get it approved from parliament because of opposition by the PPP and PML-N.

Later, Gen (retd) Musharraf re-promulgated the ordinance and tried to provide it a constitutional cover through Article 270-AAA inserted into the Constitution after promulgating emergency on Nov 3, 2007.

The PPP government was forced to table the bill in the assembly when the Supreme Court on July 31, 2009, declared the emergency illegal.

The Statement of Objects and Reasons for establishment of the DHA, Islamabad, as given in the bill, says: “Welfare and Rehabilitation Directorate of Adjutant General’s Branch of the GHQ, Rawalpindi, viewed with great concern that the beneficiaries of Pakistan Army were facing immense hardship for settling down, particularly widows, families of Shaheeds, disabled and retired army personnel. Therefore, need arose to establish a welfare housing scheme for the aforesaid purpose.”

The DHA is being set up as an extension of the existing Army Welfare Trust housing scheme in Morgah, Rawalpindi, as a “self-financed scheme to be run on a no-profit, no-loss basis”.

“Due to expansion of Army Housing Scheme, Morgah, a necessity was felt to convert the Army Welfare Housing Scheme into a separate legal entity so as to run its affairs more smoothly and independently like the DHA, Karachi, and DHA, Lahore.”