QAU seeks NAB’s help to secure grabbed land

ISLAMABAD: The Quaid-i-Azam University has formally sought intervention of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to get its land, at least 200 acres valuing around Rs1.6 billion, vacated from illegal occupants. The land has been grabbed by villagers and encroachers.

In a letter to NAB chairman Chaudhry Qamaruz Zaman, QAU Vice-Chancellor (VC) Dr Javed Ashraf said the Capital Development Authority (CDA) or Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) administration had failed to take action or even conduct a serious inquiry into the land grab for many years.

“The CDA refuses to demarcate the QAU’s boundary even though it has received payment for 1,709 acres, leading to a disputed zone of 202 acres. Within the university campus, small villages have sprouted and are steadily encroaching on QAU land, disrupting and impeding the development of the university,” he said.

The VC complained that even the CDA land adjacent to the university along Third Avenue and the Diplomatic Enclave has been grabbed, and in spite of requests to the CDA to clear its own land from illegal occupation, no serious action had been forthcoming.

The VC sought a meeting with NAB officials for a briefing on the matter and sharing of the relevant documents.

Earlier, the university wrote to the prime minister’s office and federal cabinet seeking intervention in the matter for corrective measures.