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Friday March 29, 2024

44 official residences allotted illegally in LDA

By Ali Raza
July 12, 2019

LAHORE: Poor governance and lack of merit based allocation policy has prompted dozens of officers of Lahore Development Authority (LDA) to get pre-allotment of government residence well in advance---in some cases as early as seven years.

As per rules and regulations, allotment orders of an official residence are subject to vacation of existing occupied official residence one year prior to date of vacation of such residence. However, list collected by The News revealed that 44 officers of LDA get ‘booked’ official residences much before the vacation of that residence.

Sources in Authority revealed that the allotment of official residences in LDA were done in past against merit and in many cases large and big houses were allotted to junior officials because of their ‘connections’ despite the fact that LDA claimed to follow Punjab government’s policy for allotment of houses.

As per the list of 44 officers who get pre-allotment of official residences in LDA against rules and regulations revealed that the oldest allotment was of Zahida Sultana who got the allotment of official residence 150 Gulshan-e-Ravi on January 20, 2012 while 20-G, Gulab Devi and 21-B, Gulab Devi were the latest allotments done to Umer Farooq and Husnain Rafique respectively. It is pertinent to mention that Umer Farooq has already been living in official residence 21-B, Gulab Devi and the new allotment done to him was termed double allotment.

As per details, four official residences were allotted to Habban Subhani (24-D-1, New Muslim Town), Marryum Ata Tung (27-D/BFF New Muslim Town), Sajjad Ahmed (21-G Gulab Devi) and Wazir Haddayat (305 Green Town QAT). It is pertinent to mention that the residence allotted to Habban Subhani was above the entitlement of BS-18 grade officer.

In 2015, four residences were allotted to Asadullah Cheema (257-New Muslim Town), Yasir Iqbal (27-D/AFF), Rizwan Shahzada (667-Huma Block) and Zakaullah (307-D Green Town QAT). The data showed that the residence allotted to Asadullah Cheema was above the entitlement of BS-18 grade officer.

In 2016, 10 official residences were allotted to Tayyab Khan (27-D/AGF New Muslim Town), Ubaid Iqbal (27-D-VII New Muslim Town), Waqas Baig (23-H-3 Johar Town), Abdul Basit Qamar (244-B-1 Johar Town), Affifa Almas (663-Huma Block), Sarmad Zamir Khan (694-Huma Block), M Yaqoob Driver (750-A Jubilee Town), Umer Farooq (762-F Jubilee Town), Nazia Ashraf (147-Gulshan-e-Ravi) and Khaliqur Rehman (636-A Sabzazaar).

Most of the pre-allotment cases in a year were 18 and these houses were allotted in 2017 to Fauzia Jalil (27D-BGF New Muslim Town), Rafia Nazir (24-D-II New Muslim Town), Abdul Aziz (265-Green Town QAT), Ghulam Abbas (284-Green Town QAT), Rubina Mukhtar (300-Green Town QAT), Muhammad Ammar (323-Green Town QAT), Husnain Iqbal (302-B Green Town QAT), Atika Ashfaq (304-B5 Green Town QAT), Kashif Safeer Awan (306-Green Town QAT), Muhammad Naseem (307-C Green Town QAT), Anwar Saeed (307-E Green Town QAT), Muhammad Umer Farooq (308-Green Town QAT), Hafiz Ghulam Dastgir (4-Chenab Block), Waqas Maqbool (6&7 Chenab Block), Ayesha Kiran (13-Chenab Block), Raheem Adil (19-Chenab Block), Noureena Iqbal (20-Chenab Block) and Hafiz Muhammad Shafique (17-Chenab Block).

The data revealed that in 2018, official house (46-New Muslim Town) was allotted to Jahangir Iqbal Khan in violation of the policy as the officer is in BS-17 while the residence is for BS-19 and above. Another residence 23-D, New Garden Town was allotted to Uzair Bin Tariq above his entitlement as this house was for BS-18 while the officer is already residing in official residence 746-F Jubilee Town.

Similarly, another official residence (2-Shadman) was allotted to Hafeezullah on June 11, 2018 in violation of policy as the allotment is above the entitlement of BS-18. The officer is already living in official residence (763-F Jubilee Town). In July 2018, an official residence 380-GF Jubilee Town was allotted to Sundar Iqbal Khan. It is pertinent to mention that the residence is yet to be constructed. The data showed that House # 149 Gulshan-e-Ravi was allotted to Shahan Irfan against rules and regulations.

When contacted, LDA Director Administration Ahmed Mukhtar said a detailed inquiry was held over the issue and all of these illegal allotments were cancelled on July 9, 2019. He said LDA DG had passed strict directions that official residences would only be allotted to LDA officers/officials on merit.