Islamabad: Sector G-6 govt quarters controversy continues

[Naveed Yaseen]

Residents forced to live in dilapidated quarters
Noor Aftab
With the government still finding it hard to amicably resolve the issue of ownership rights of government quarters in Sector G-6, the dwellers are compelled to live in these dilapidated structures.

Constructed after shifting of the federal capital from Karachi to Islamabad, some 2,900 government quarters in Sector G-6 are in a pathetic condition. Their decaying roofs, pale yellow walls and termite-infested wooden doors are enough to portray miseries of the residents, who continue to defy the evacuation notices issued to them time and again by the concerned authorities.

The Capital Development Authority has stopped repair work of these quarters on the directives of the Ministry of Housing and Works. The annual fund for their maintenance is no more allocated in the CDA’s fiscal budget due to which the condition of the quarters is deteriorating.

The data provided by the Capital Development Authority (CDA) revealed that a plan was prepared sometime back to demolish the dilapidated quarters in Sector G-6 for constructing four-storey residential blocks more than twice in number to the existing quarters. But it failed to convince the residents of these quarters who termed it an effort to deprive them of their accommodations.

The dwellers of these quarters are insisting on ownership rights in line with the policy adopted while issuing ownership eligibility certificates to the residents of more than 3,000 government-owned quarters in Karachi, including Jahangir Road, Martin Road, Clayton Road, Jamshed Quarters, Patel Para and Pakistan Quarters.

Sources in the Ministry of Housing told ‘The News’ that the former minister for housing and works had awarded the ownership eligibility certificates to residents of the government-owned quarters and houses in Karachi in more than 3,000 cases.

Sources claimed that the previous government promised the residents of the Sector G-6 that they would be given ownership rights but it shelved the summary moved for this purpose. An official said that the government would never ever give ownership rights to the residents of G-6 quarters because it would set a precedent for other government employees to get official accommodation after their retirement.

“If we accept their argument that living in a house for a longer period entitles a person to its ownership then we should allot the Aiwan-e-Sadr to the former president, Pervez Musharraf, who lived there for almost nine years,” he argued.

He said that a survey conducted in the past had shown that the land in the Sector G-6 was worth Rs450 billion and the government was not in a position to give such a precious land on ownership basis to anyone.

The record of the Ministry of Housing and Estate Office has been posted on a website so that kickbacks in allotment of houses and grabbing of government land could be stopped, he said. The government continues to adopt the policy of forceful evacuation of widows and retired government employees from the quarters, which is condemned by the residents.

“The officials of the Estate Office dragged a female, Shameem, out of a government quarter (D-79, Sector G-6/2), who was stenographer in the Ministry of Industries,” said Syed Farrukh Sair, an office-bearer of the association formed by the residents of Sector G-6.

He claimed that the company, which constructed government quarters in Sector G-6, termed it a transit camp. It means that the residents would be provided with alternative accommodation after twenty years.

Shafiq Malik, a resident of Sector G-6/2, said that the government had announced on November 2, 2007, that no one would be evacuated from any government quarter in the sector but dozens of widows and retired government servants have so far been pulled out of their houses with the use of police force.

He alleged that after the installation of the new government various junior officers were allotted quarters in the sector, depriving senior officers of their right who did not have any approach to the high-ups of the Ministry of Housing and Works.

Secretary Housing G M Sikandar told ‘The News’ that the prime minister has constituted a committee to review the issue of government quarters in Sector G-6.He said the committee, headed by Interior Minister Rehman Malik, would comprise CDA chairman, commissioner and some other high government officials and it would submit its recommendations to the prime minister soon.

G M Sikandar said that measures would be taken in line with the recommendations of the committee, adding “the proposal for construction of new multi-storey apartments after demolition of existing ones would also be taken up by committee members.”

http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=178359