Senate session

Massive Railway land encroached by locals, other depts

By Mumtaz Alvi

ISLAMABAD: Minister for Railways Sheikh Rasheed Ahmad told the Senate Wednesday that a total of 5662.667 acres of the Railway land was found encroached by various departments and private persons in 2011, which include 3416.102 acres, encroached on by private persons, and another 447.304 acres by various government departments.

During the question hour, the minister was responding to question by Senator Usman Kakar of PkMAP. The minister pointed out that 1737.74 acres of land was retrieved/regularised from private persons as a result of a anti-encroachment operations by the Railways. Hence, a total of 3429.21 acres of land was retrieved/regularised in the light of a survey of encroached upon land in 2011-12.

However, he noted that a fresh survey was conducted in 2015, to include missing information that could not surveyed previously and hence a total of 43.40.775 acres of Railways land was found under unauthorised occupation of private/individuals (3548.869 acres) and government (540.668 acres).

He continued the Railways managed to retrieve/regularise 428.373 acres of land: all from private persons. He noted presently, a total of 4001.416 acres of the Railways land was under encroachment, which include 1815.31 acres (agriculture), 1297.04 acres (residential), 251.237 acres (government departments) and 97.16 acres (commercial).

Likewise, he said that an area of 137.002 acres (89.492 acre, individual and 47.510 acres government departments) of the Railways land had been encroached during the last five years, which included 11.04 acres at Peshawar that was originally given on lease but after expiry of lease, the lessee did not vacate it and got stay order from the court, having assessed value of Rs5641.174 million.

Minister for Interior Shehryar Afridi said that the FIA cybercrime wing had received a total of 1244 complaints regarding unauthorised transactions through ATMs and internet banking fund transfer till November 08, 2018: out of which, 524 were converted into regular enquiries, 35 converted into FIRs and 463 were at verification stage in the wing. He noted 76 persons had been held in relation to cases while another 222 complaints were still pending in the wing.

Afridi said in the Senate that no request had been received from the United States for repatriation of Dr Shakil Afridi, saying in the ‘naya Pakistan’, there would be no compromise on national security and national interests.

Responding to supplementary questions from Senators Syed Muzaffar Hussain Shah and Sirajul Haq during the question hour, the minister insisted that there could be no question of reducing Dr Afridi’s sentence for all initiatives were now being taken by the government itself. “If any issues surfaced, then it will be shared with all,” he said.

The minister said there could be no comparison between Dr Afridi and Kulbhushan Jadhav, as the former was a Pakistani national. This he said in response to a remark by Senator Mushtaq Ahmad of JI.

Earlier, all questions pertaining to his ministry were kept pending, finally, as neither State Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Ali Muhammad Khan nor Leader of the House Syed Shibli Faraz had any idea about Afridi’s absence from the House after the question hour commenced. Interestingly, it was informed to Shibli that the minister would reach within ten minutes and he stepped in accordingly.

Deputy Chairman Senate Saleem Mandviwalla, who had chairing the session, expressed his displeasure over the matter and termed it an instance of not taking the Parliament seriously that a minister, whose questions were listed and he was not around while the Senate Secretariat and the Leader of the House as well as the parliamentary affair minister was also not informed about this.

Replying to another question, the minister said that the government was taking measures for mainstreaming of arms manufacturers in Bara, Bannu, Peshawar or elsewhere and his ministry, the Ministry of Commerce and Trade and the Ministry of Overseas Pakistanis were working on the policy.

Minister for Railways Sheikh Rasheed Ahmad, during the question hour said that an area of 15,025.44 acres had been licensed/leased out for various purposes, including premium shops, stacking, agriculture, parking stands & petrol pumps during last ten years from January, 2008 to December, 2017.