Demo against ‘transfer of plots’

A large number of property owners of Mustafa Town staged a protest demonstration outside the office of Lahore Development Authority (LDA) here on Tuesday and accused the authority’s high-ups of committing bogus transfers of plots and other frauds in the town.

The issue of bogus transfers of plots surfaced in LDA Mustafa Town residential scheme some five years back and at that time LDA sealed total record of Mustafa Town to scrutinise ownership of the plots. The process took five years as LDA got ownership of the plots verified from sub-registrar office. So far 80 per cent of the files of Mustafa Town were cleared and notices are being sent to the property owners whose ownership record was not verified. Recently, the NAB arrested two senior officials of LDA for bogus allotments in Mustafa Town and they are still under NAB’s custody. LDA Additional Director General (Housing) Zeeshan Rana negotiated with the protesters after which the protest was called off. Zeeshan Rana while talking to The News said at present all transactions of Mustafa Town are opened like any other scheme of LDA. He said the protesters were those plot owners whose plots were cancelled after scrutiny. “LDA has established a commission to facilitate bonafide purchasers of Mustafa Town,” he concluded.