Operation against land grabbers to be expedited: adviser

ISLAMABAD: Adviser to Prime Minister on Capital Development Authority (CDA) said on Tuesday that the government had decided to expedite operation against the land grabbers.

The federal government decided to revise master plan of Islamabad and set up a commission for the purpose to cope with changing requirements and make it relevant to the present needs.

It was stated by Minister of State for Interior Shehryar Afridi while addressing a press conference along with Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Capital Development Authority (CDA) Ali Nawaz Awan after a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Imran Khan on development activities and law and order in the capital. The minister said that commission will be headed by an expert and all the stakeholders would be included in it. “Everything will be processed in a systematic manner and results would start coming before the resident of metropolitan city within three to six months,” state minister for interior said.

Ali Nawaz Awan said that Islamabad is face of Pakistan and its master plan was designed for 600,000 people. “There are several challenges to convert it into a model city but this goal would be achieved as per vision of Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan,” he said.

The adviser said that properties of people were acquired by CDA though land acquisition act but compensation had not been given to them for decades. “Islamabad has witnessed mushroom and ill-planned growth of housing societies in past years and reforms would have to be introduced for all such structures,” he added.

The state minister said that previous government allowed land grabbers to occupy lands but the incumbent government had got significant success in vacating such lands. “A total of 33,000 kanal of land was vacated from two villages (mozas),” he maintained.

To a question, the minister said that list of those facilitating land grabbers, who belonged to CDA, district administration and police, was being prepared. Strict action would be ensured against them and their cases would be forwarded to courts after complete homework which had the authority to penalise them, he added.

To another question, the minister said that it is the first time in history that CDA served notice to sitting prime minister regarding regularisation of residence who believes in good governance and strict action against land grabbers. He said that present government has given results within short period which the previous governments could not do in decades. “I assure strict action against land grabbers whether from PTI or any other political party and no discrimination would be made in this regard,” he added.

He said that credit of operation against encroachers goes to the PTI which started it in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa for the first time and it is now underway in Punjab and Capital without any discrimination.

Responding to a question about missing persons, the minister said that a policy would be made public within 100 days related to the issue of governance and other matters. Reply of such questions would be clear through this policy, he concluded.

To a question, Ali Nawaz Awan said that PTI would not dislocate any of the person till it completes the process of rehabilitation for the people. He said that rehabilitation plan would be introduced for the slum dwellers.