PAC body directs Sindh govt, CAA to resolve land issue within a week

ISLAMABAD: The Sindh government and Civil Aviation Authority failed to resolve the matter of land of worth millions of rupees in the meeting of the sub-committee of the Public Accounts Committee on Thursday and the committee gave both of them a week to resolve the matter.

The meeting of the sub-committee of the PAC was held on Thursday with the chair of its Convener Ms Shahida Akhtar Ali in which the audit paras relating to Aviation Division for the 2012-13 were examined.

The Audit officials told the sub-committee of the PAC that Sindh government has allotted 80 acres of land to Civil Aviation Authority in 1993 and besides it the Sindh government has allotted 5 acre of land to a private company.

The audit officials told the committee that out of five acres of land allotted to the private company, 2 acres of land was in the limits of the airport.

They raised the objection that no private company was allowed to make any kind of construction within the limits of airport as no compromise will made on the security of the airport and it was against the national interest. It was told to the sub-committee that Sindh government promulgated the ordinance in 2010 under which the allotment of the land to the CAA was cancelled.

But the audit opined that this ordinance be implemented on only those lands which were allotted against the rules and on low market rate and CAA land did not come under the purview of the ordinance.

Secretary Aviation Division said the stance of the Board of Revenue of the Sindh government has now changed and now they were talking about the cancellation of the allotment. ‘We have deposited the whole money in 1992 for the allotment of the land,” he told the committee.

The officials of the Sindh Revenue Board told the sub-committee that the allotment of 80 acre land to CAA was made in 1993 while the 2 acre of land was allotted to the private company in 1992 and the Sindh government was ready for the demarcation of 80 acres of land to the CAA.