NA passes DHA Islamabad bill

[Salman]

ISLAMABAD: The controversial legislation to establish the Defence Housing Authority in Islamabad sailed through the Lower House of parliament on Monday following hectic debate on it from both sides of the divide in the House.

The ruling PPP seemed in a reconciliatory mood when it agreed to incorporate all the amendments proposed by the opposition PML-N as well as MQM. However, its ally ANP opposed it, and its member Bushra Gohar called it preferential treatment with a particular class and saw it as involving the armed forces in housing societies. The PPP also took criticism from its former member Zafar Ali Shah, who recently switched his loyalties to the PML-N, but is still sitting on the treasury side when he called it a discriminatory bill.

Opposition leader Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, who once threatened to block the DHA bill physically in the House said it is encouraging that the proposed legislation has been reshaped wholly on the reservations of the opposition. “If the original bill moved by the government had been passed, it would have established a state within state with no oversight of civilian authorities on this housing society,” he pointed out.

Nisar said that the new bill would also bring a good name to the armed forces which have agreed to address the House’s reservations over this housing society. On the contents of the bill, he termed as quite heartening fifty percent allocation of plots to the bereaved families, injured soldiers and lower cadre employees of armed forces. ANP’s Bushra Gohar opposed the bill and said that the armed forces should not be involved in housing societies and called it a preferential treatment to a particular class. She also noted that the ANP was not taken on board on this bill.

However, Defence Minister Naveed Qamar replied that ANP’s Haider Ali Shah was member of the standing committee of the House that passed the bill earlier, which was also endorsed by Committee Chairman Dr Azra Afzal Peecho. PPP’s Zafar Ali Shah also called it a discriminatory legislation which will benefit a particular class and said that his opposition is based on principles.

The Punjab Assembly has already enacted the act for the establishment of DHA authority in Rawalpindi for the territory which is part of Punjab. Therefore, the federal enactment was required for the establishment of DHA Islamabad within the territorial limits of the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT). The bill also carried a dissenting note of PML-N’s MNAs Ayaz Amir and Begum Ishrat Ashraf despite the party’s support to it, as these were not withdrawn when the bill was passed in the House.

The dissenting note stated that this private housing business had nothing to do with the national security. Earlier the house witnessed an exchange of words between treasury and opposition when PPP’s chief whip Khursheed Shah pointed out that Zafar Ali Shah is no more a member of the House after switching loyalties.