ETPB members not interested in its affairs

LAHORE
The Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB) is proving to be a futile entity as the people appointed by the federal government its members do not take interest in its affairs.
Documents, available with The News, revealed that some members did not bother to attend even a single meeting of the last Board that expired on March 28, 2015. Strangely, along with others, the names of those who did not attend a single meeting have also been forwarded to the prime minister for approval.
It is also important to mention that the Trust had spent over Rs 7.5 million on these meetings of the Board held from 2012 to 2015.
The Federal Government, under Section 3 (1) of the Evacuee Trust Properties’ (Management and Disposal) Act, 1975, constitutes the Board for the management and disposal of evacuee trust property for a period of three years. With the approval of the Federal Government, the Board performs functions like to mortgage or lease any evacuee trust property, to maintain religious shrines and provide facilities for the pilgrims, to undertake development programmes, to sell, dispose of and to assess or reassess the rent or lease.
The last Board had seven official and 16 non-official members. Among the seven official, ex-officio, members of the Board included Senior Member Board of Revenue Punjab, Senior Member Board of Revenue Sindh, Senior Member Board of Revenue Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), Senior Member Board of Revenue Balochistan, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Religious Affairs & Interfaith Harmony Government of Pakistan, Joint Secretary, FIA (Political), Ministry of Interior, Government of Pakistan and Financial Advisor (NHD) and Finance Division.
Ironically, SMBR Punjab or his any representative did not bother to attend even a single meeting of the ETPB in three years. SMBR KPK attended one, SMBR Sindh two and SMBR Balochistan attended four meetings. Besides, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Religious Affairs attended 13, Joint Secretary, FIA 12 and Financial Advisor (NHD), Finance Division attended seven meetings.
It is important to mention here that out of the total 109,404 acres of ETPB land, around 85,366 acres located in Punjab alone. Besides, 21,735 acres of land in Sindh, 2,301 acres in KP and the largest province of the country, Balochistan whose SMBR turned up in the meetings more than any other SMBRs, the ETPB owns only couple of acres of land.
Similarly, among non-official members including Mian Munir Ahmed, Malik Muhammad Abbas Dharala and Pervaiz John Saroya attended 15 meetings, Sheikh Azhar Ehsan and Sardar Sham Singh 14, Muhammad Ramzan Sadaqat Ali and Ms Zarqa Butt 13, Muhammad Nawaz Tishna, Mian Imran Masood, Cap (retd) Muhammad Younas Durrani, Ms Ayesha Hamid, Sardar Suran Singh and Dr Munawar Chand 12, Sohail Ahmed Raza 11, Raja Nazar Hussain 05 and Shahid Sheikh could attend only one meeting of the Board during three years.
Section 3 (7) (v) of the ETPB Act categorically states that the Federal Government has the power to remove any member if he absents himself from three consecutive meetings of the Board without any reasonable cause but surprisingly neither the then the PPP-led federal government nor the incumbent PML-N led Federal Government removed/suspended any member who failed in attending even a single meeting of the Board from 2012 to 2015, reasons best known to them.
The question arises here that if official members like SMBRs of the provinces are too much busy in other ‘important’ government’s businesses and could not spare some time to attend ETPB meetings than why they were included in the Board as its members. It was also very surprising to note that why these SMBRs and other board members could not be replaced with other suitable persons as members of the Board.
When contacted on Wednesday, ETPB chairman Siddiq-ul-Farooq said it was up to the Federal Government to remove or include any member in the Board even if that person remains absent from three consecutive Board’s meetings.
He confirmed that he has forwarded the names of the members for the new Board to the Federal Government for its approval. For the new Board, he said, he has also proposed the name of a member from the Federal Law & Justice Ministry for Board’s guidance on legal matters.
As Punjab and Sindh have gone to courts for devolution of the ETPB after 18th amendment, their SMBRs preferred to stay away from the Board’s meetings during the last three years, the ETPB chairman responded when asked why the senior revenue officers of all the four provinces do not take due interest in Board’s affairs. He confirmed that all the SMBRs being ex-officio members would also be part of the new Board.
“The issue of their attendance would be settled once and for all after the court’s verdict on devolution”, observed the ETPB chairman.
He went on to say that due to internal and external security issues, ETPB should not be dissolved as it would badly affect handling of Sikh and Hindu yatrees who would visit Pakistan from around the world every year.