Islamabad: Every senator and MNA to get 2 kanal plot in 'Parliamentarians Colony'

[Naveed Yaseen]

Is this a collective bribe?
By Tariq Butt
ISLAMABAD: Preparations are under way to create a Parliamentarians’ Colony in Islamabad comprising at least 442 plots, measuring 1,000 square yards each. Every senator and member of the National Assembly (MNA) regardless of his or her political affiliation will be allotted a plot in this area.

“We have received a letter from the Cabinet Division, issued on the instructions of Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani, to elicit our views about establishing a housing colony for the MPs in the federal capital,” Leader of House in the Senate Nayyar Bokhari, belonging to the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), told The News.

He said that the Cabinet Division addressed the letter to the Senate secretary, who gave it to him for informing every member of the Upper House. He said a similar letter was sent to the National Assembly speaker for the same purpose.

Bokhari said he has written similar letters to all senators, including those hailing from the opposition, seeking their opinion regarding the prime minister’s decision about the housing colony. According to him, Gilani has made it clear that residential plots in the housing colony would be allotted to all MPs without any discrimination.

When contacted, Capital Development Authority (CDA) Chairman Imtiaz Enayat Elahi said a piece of land could be earmarked for the parliamentarians’ enclave if a decision was taken by relevant quarters to the effect. “If the government will ask the CDA to make the land available for such colony, we will look into it.”

He said it was not correct that a piece of land measuring 184 acres located on the Kuri Road has already been set aside for such colony. He said this land was meant for allotment to the civil servants by the Federal Government Employees Housing Foundation.

Nayyar Bokhari believed that the housing colony for the MPs would be set up in Zone 4, where, at present, no residential construction was allowed under the CDA bylaws. But despite that, housing colonies have mushroomed over the past few years.

He strongly advocated that the MPs should be allotted residential plots in the federal capital. He said the MNAs and senators had not been given plots after 1985. On receipt of the views and opinion of all the senators, Bokhari would send them to the prime minister’s office. There are a total of 100 senators and 342 MNAs.

An official source said that Gilani wanted to allot residential plots to the MPs in Islamabad but desired that each and every one of them should be on board so that none could later distance himself from the decision of establishing the housing colony.

http://www.thenews.com.pk/top_story_detail.asp?Id=24477