Over Rs4b Auqaf Dept land reclaimed

LAHORE:During the past two months, The Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) Punjab retrieved residential, commercial and agricultural land worth more than Rs4 billion from illegal occupants across the province.

ACE has retrieved 20,338 kanal land out of 95,005 kanal land of the Punjab Auqaf Department which had been encroached upon by illegal occupants, The News has learnt. According to the documents available with The News, the illegal occupants had encroached upon 95,005 kanals of land worth billions of rupees. During the last two months, ACE Punjab retrieved residential, commercial and agricultural land worth Rs4025.44 million from illegal occupants across Punjab.

ACE Lahore Region-A retrieved 72.19 Kanal land out of total encroached 772 Kanal land. Lahore Region-B reclaimed 571.26 kanal land out of 868.25 kanals. In Gujranwala region, 102.21 Kanal out of 715.3 Kanal land was retrieved. In Rawalpindi, 448.17 kanal out of 548 Kanal land was retrieved. In Faisalabad, 2539.28 kanal out of 40,373 kanal was retrieved. In Sargodha, 190.15 kanal land out of 538 kanal land was retrieved. In Sahiwal, 42.29 kanals out of 1748.26 kanals were retrieved. In Multan, 1113.9 kanals out of 2776.13 kanals were retrieved. In Bahawalpur, 1,382.8 kanal land out of 9576.1 kanal land was retrieved. In Dera Ghazi Khan, 13,879.5 kanals out of 37091.19 kanals were retrieved. Around 74,667 kanals of land of Punjab Auqaf Department were yet to be retrieved by ACE in Punjab.

Around 1,754 kanal Auqaf Department land is encroached upon by Katchi Abadis while 21,499.32 Kanal encroached land is under litigation. Faisalabad division stood first in encroachment where 4,0373 Kanal land had been occupied illegally by powerful mafia. Dera Ghazi Khan division stood second in encroachment where 37,091 Kanal land had been occupied illegally by influential people. Bahawalpur division stood third where 9,576 Kanal land had been encroached by powerful mafia.

ACE DG Gohar Nafees said that corrupt elements would be dealt with an iron hand and action would be taken against the illegal occupants on land of Auqaf Department without any discrimination. He stated he had directed all the regional heads to intensify action against land grabbers throughout the province. On concern from different quarters regarding the domain of ACE Punjab, Abdul Salam Arif, Director Vigilance, ACE Punjab, said it was very much the ACE’s domain to retrieve the state land illegally occupied by the land grabbers with the connivance of the officials of Auqaf Department. He said action would also be taken against the Auqaf Department officials from top to bottom who were involved in this crime. He said the land was retrieved from the illegal possession with the help of revenue officers and police. However, he said, so far no FIR has been registered against any official of Auqaf Department. Waqar Azeem Jappa, a spokesperson for ACE Punjab, said that ACE plays the role of watchdog to ensure good governance and service delivery to the public and that is why it retrieved the land owned by Punjab Auqaf Department from illegal occupants. When this scribe asked why ACE played this role during the last two month only and not before that, he said, “You must ask this question from those who served in the establishment in the past.”

Earlier in February, Punjab Minister for Auqaf and Religious Affairs Pir Syed Saeedul Hassan had sent a letter (a copy of which is available with this scribe) to the CM in which he had alleged the officials of the department had developed strong ties with land grabbers and were getting huge monetary benefits in return. In the letter, the minister had also recommended immediate suspension and removal of officers, including Tahir Raza Bukhari, director general, Religious Affairs, Auqaf Department, Punjab, from their posts. The minister had recommended formation of a joint investigation team comprising NAB, ACE, police and intelligence officials to investigate the corruption of billions of rupees committed by the alleged mafia during the last many years. He had also mentioned that he had issued 300 directions in one year to Punjab Auqaf and Religious Affairs Secretary for betterment and to root out corruption from the department but they remained unheard.

Talking to this scribe, the minister said, “I want removal of the Auqaf DG just because he was found involved in corrupt practices. I have no personal enmity with him. I cannot hate any person. I only hate the crimes whoever commits them.” He said if he had had the powers to remove him he would have done that long time ago. When contacted, Auqaf DG Tahir Raza Bukhari said he would not comment because the government had directed government officials not to talk with media persons.

Meanwhile, a high-ranking Auqaf Department official said that such inquiries, recommendations and allegations are routine matters and they know well how to handle those.