Pakistan to sell part of Kabul estate

[LahoreEstate]

Pakistan’s Ambassador to Kabul Mohammad Sadiq confirmed that negotiations are under way with the British authorities.—File


ISLAMABAD: The Foreign Office has agreed to sell part of its valuable Kart-i-Parwan estate in Kabul to Britain.

‘It has been agreed in principle that Pakistan will sell half of the property to Britain,’ diplomatic sources told Dawn on Friday.

Pakistan’s Ambassador to Kabul Mohammad Sadiq confirmed that negotiations were under way with the British authorities. The 24-acre Kart-i-Parwan estate is considered to be one of the most prestigious assets in the Afghan capital.

It housed Pakistan’s embassy till 1995 when it was ransacked by a mob. The mission then moved to a rented property in another part of the city because of security reasons, but the government decided to retain the compound for future use.

The British government expressed interest in buying the compound in 2006. Despite Pakistan’s refusal it continued to pursue the matter with Pakistani leaders.

Britain had initially offered $25 million for the property. When the Foreign Office formally declined last year to sell the land, the British High Commission reacted by saying that London would be ‘highly disappointed’.

The British government made several proposals, including the splitting of the property and a swap with the British-owned Bulgarian embassy complex.

According to official documents, all the proposals were rejected by former president Pervez Musharraf on the premise that the prestigious estate would be an asset when security situation improved and it would save nearly $1 million annually in rent.

Moreover, it was argued that the amount offered by the British authorities was not adequate to find suitable alternative premises for the embassy.

According to sources, President Asif Ali Zardari was amenable to the British offer, but the Foreign Office dragged its feet.

The British high commissioner in Islamabad is said to have complained to President Zardari on at least three occasions about what it called inflexibility of the Foreign Office.

Ambassador Sadiq said the resistance was part of the traditional standpoint of holding on to the property. The Foreign Office eventually succumbed to pressures from the presidency and agreed to negotiate the sale, the sources said.

http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn...ate--bi-07