Mansehra admin asked to retrieve land for New Balakot City

MANSEHRA: A judicial commission, constituted by the apex court to probe and fix responsibility in alleged embezzlement of funds meant for rehabilitation and reconstruction of the 2005 earthquake survivors, has ordered the district administration to retrieve land acquired for New Balakot City housing project.

The commission, headed by Mohammad Zeb Khan, the principal staff officer to the chief justice of Peshawar High Court, met here on Thursday.

It discussed in details the terms of reference (TOR) set by the Supreme Court of Pakistan for it in a suo motu notice taken by Chief justice Mian Saqib Nisar on a petition moved by a social activist Sheraz Mehmood Qureshi earlier this year.

“The commission, which is going to meet again on October 15, ordered the deputy commissioner to retrieve the land acquired for the Rs13 billion New Balakot City housing project, which was scheduled to be completed in 2012 but still it is in the doldrums and survivors are living in makeshift settlers in the red zone Balakot,” stated Munir Hussain Lughmani, a member of commission, while talking to reporters.

He said that the auditor general of Pakistan had submitted a comprehensive report of spending of $5 billion donated by the international community following the 2005 earthquake.

The members of the commission - mover of the petition Sheeraz Mehmood Qureshi, president of district bar association Basharat Khan Swati, and additional deputy commissioner Yasir Khan were also in attendance.

Lughmani said that the commission had asked other relevant departments to submit reports of reconstruction and rehabilitation projects which they had been executed from the grants donated by the international community.

The commission, which was constituted by the apex court on September 16 this year to probe alleged embezzlements and delay in reconstruction of various projects, would complete its task within six weeks.