ISLAMABAD: A detailed report containing a list of Grade-22 bureaucrats and judges, who received two residential plots in the posh sectors of Islamabad, was presented before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Tuesday.
The PAC sought affidavits from bureaucrats, judges and generals for getting two plots in Islamabad and directed to present them in its meeting to be held on Thursday. The PAC had last month sought from the Ministry of Housing the list of bureaucrats, generals and judges who got plots in the posh sector of Islamabad.
Though the list of the bureaucrats and judges was presented to the PAC on Tuesday yet the list of generals who availed two plots in Islamabad was not presented. The PAC directed that in the next meeting the list of the generals should also be presented.
The two-plot package for the Grade-22 officials was started during the Musharraf era when the government adopted a summary for ‘Prime Minister Incentive Package for Bureaucrats’ and the policy continued even in the tenure of Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani as prime minister.
The list contains names of 244 bureaucrats who availed the plots and 54 of them availed two plots while three sitting and 12 retired judges got two residentialplots in the posh sectors of Islamabad. In his remarks, PAC Chairman Nadeem Afzal Gondal likened availing two plots to an NRO. “The pity is that two plots were being availed in a poor country from the poor taxpayers’ money. Why should it not be dubbed an NRO, which allows the powerful to keep two plots? It is strange that everyone blamed Musharraf for his ill policies and even criticised him for sacking the judges. But nobody points out that there were many who accepted his policy of two plots with all their hearts,” he added.
The PAC chairman directed to write to chief secretaries of the provinces for submitting a report on allotment of plots to all the federal government officers posted in the provinces. The letter should be also written to chairpersons of provincial PACs to also seek similar details, he directed. To formulate a line of action, the PAC in its meeting to be held tomorrow will discuss the list of those who got two plots. “We cannot undo the past but will stop this practice in the future,” the chairman remarked and directed the secretary housing to furnish the summary in the PAC meeting tomorrow that paved the way for approval of two plots policy.