Peshawar: Allotment of PA land for Hayatabad Township park likely to be contested

[Naveed Yaseen]

Riaz Khan Daudzai
PESHAWAR: The re-allotment of 25 acres of the provincial assembly land in Phase-VI of the posh Hayatabad Township is likely to become the bone of contention between the coalition partners in the NWFP — Pakistan People’s Party and Awami National Party, as the government has in principle decided to give the land to the Sports, Culture and Tourism Ministry for a proposed park.

Sources told ‘The News’ the Chief Minister Ameer Haider Khan Hoti called a special meeting of the administrative secretaries concerned on Tuesday at the Chief Minister Secretariat to sort out the matter of re-allotment of the land, which was allotted to the provincial assembly in 1988.

Sources said the land was initially allotted to the provincial assembly for its building and secretariat as well as residential facilities. The project could not be initiated even after passage of 20 years for one reason or the other.

Sources said after the construction and modification of the assembly building at its old site during the previous Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal government and allotment of the Met Office land opposite the assembly for extension of its secretariat and ministers’ blocks, the 25-acre peace of the priced land became a bone of contention between various ministries and departments.

The sources went on to add that the Ministry of Sport, Culture and Tourism led by an ANP-affiliated Minister Syed Aqil Shah sought the approval of re-allotment of the land for sports complex-cum-park to which the chief minister is said to have agreed in

principle.

The sources, however, claimed that Provincial Assembly Speaker Karamatullah Khan Chagharmati, who is currently abroad, was averse to the plan and he wanted to construct at least a boundary wall around the land in first place. They said the chief minister called the meeting of the concerned secretaries to decide the matter once and for all.

Sources said the assembly secretary in his justification wanted to inform the chief minister the land was allotted for assembly-cum-residential colony and the government had planned to re-allot it to the Sports and Culture Ministry for a park, which had shocked the assembly employees.

The sources in the civil secretariat said after the construction of the assembly building at its old site and allotment of the Met Office land opposite the assembly building and allotment of plots to the assembly employees in the Regi Lalma Township, the land is to be re-allotted for another more beneficial project.

The sources said the government was not willing to agree with the assembly secretariat request to leave the land of the housing scheme of the assembly employees and it had decided to re-allot the land to the sports and culture ministry for its complex project.

The sources, however, said Speaker Chagharmati was very much particular about the matter and he would fight the government plan tooth and nail. The sources said he had already discussed the matter with assembly secretariat officials in a bid to find ways and means to retain the piece of priced land.

http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=137612