Loot sale of govt lands of Evacuee Trust: CJ orders market survey

[Naveed Yaseen]

CJ puts his foot down
ISLAMABAD: Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry has issued orders that survey of land held by the Evacuee Trust be conducted and its current price be fixed, and a report in this connection be presented in the court on the next hearing.

The CJ issued these orders while presiding over a 3-member bench of the SC during the course of hearing of a suo moto notice on the sale of 240-acre land of the Evacuee Trust.

The CJ also granted exemption to the Chairman of the Board, Syed Asif Hashmi, from attending the next hearing of the case besides issuing notice to the Sindh advocate general to clarify their legal position with respect to this land. The city government of Karachi should inform the court how much land was in its possession, he further directed.

The CJ remarked that loot sale was going on in three departments, including the Railways, the Evacuee Trust and the CDA. “We will not allow any one to embezzle even a penny of the nation. We will set up a commission to conduct investigation into sale of the government land at throwaway prices,” he further remarked.

http://www.thenews.com.pk/top_story_detail.asp?Id=22154