Illegal allotment of official residences continues

[Lahore_Real_Estate]

Estate Office misusing police to get houses vacated

By Ikram Junaidi

ISLAMABAD: Due to alleged incompetence of Ministry of Housing and Works, the Estate Office has started vacating houses by misusing federal police, already known for doing things against the law.

According to sources, Muhammad Latif, Account Officer in Ministry of Education, was allotted of House No 333E, Street 77, Sector G-6/4 as his official residence. He served the government for 35 years and when he retired after completing his service, after a long struggle he succeeded in getting allotted this house to his son Azhar Latif under rules 29A and AAR-2002. Azhar Latif is a patrolling officer in Motorway Police, an ancillary department of Ministry of Communications. His parents and six sisters depend on his job and hose allotted to him for residence.

Income Tax Department Additional Commissioner Nadir Mumtaz allegedly used his influence and got allotted the said house in his name though Income Tax office employees are not entitled to allotment of a house from the Estate Office, said the sources. Mumtaz once served as Deputy Secretary in Ministry of Petroleum on deputation and he used this cover for the allotment although he was neither working with Ministry of Petroleum nor he was eligible when the house was allotted to him, the sources added.

According to sources, such allotment was illegal under the Housing and Works section PAR 2002-3 and there is a precedent that allotment of House No 354E, Street 77 Sector G-6/4, which was allotted to Assistant Commissioner Anwar Zaib, was canceled under that section.

They said Mumtaz was an influential person. On June 8, 2010 he used more than 100 employees of federal police and the district administration officials to get the said house vacated by force and threw Azhar Latif’s aged parents and his family along with furniture out of the house, the sources said.

Daily Times has learnt that Mumtaz was a close friend of a top ranking police officer of Islamabad police who used his powers to get the house vacated, though it was not police responsibility.

According to sources, officers and employees of Income Tax office, OGDCL and corporations etc were not entitled to allotment of houses from the Estate Office.

They said sometimes officials of Estate Office take advantage of incompetence of Ministry of Housing and allot the houses to irrelevant persons. Whenever they want to vacate the houses they misuse federal police for the purpose, they said, adding, due to this practice at the moment police officials are illegally residing in about 200 houses of Estate Office.