PARC research institute’s land occupied

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Agriculture Research Council (PARC) has written letters to the Balochistan government over the fact that its almost 10 acres of land was occupied.

Top official sources confirmed to The News that the chairman PARC wrote letters to the institutions and other ruling elite in Balochistan, informing them that the research institute was facing a difficult situation as its land meant for conducting research to ensure food security was being rapidly occupied. The agriculture research institute possesses 40 acres of land. Almost 10 acres of land was so far occupied.

Official sources said that the PARC’s Research Center at Bahawalpur was also under threat as the Punjab government, under Buzdar, had decided to establish the Southern Punjab Secretariat within the jurisdiction of Bahwalpur city. The government has decided to provide research institute land for constructing the secretariat building of southern Punjab. The sources said that a mango garden was bulldozed in Multan by one of housing authorities and PARC also took up the issue at the highest levels. There are examples in the country when agriculture land was used for constructing private and public sector housing schemes. One top official proposed that there was a need for legislation where the government should impose a ban on using fertile agriculture land for housing schemes. Only barren land should be utilized for such housing schemes and there should be proper regulatory mechanism in this regard.

An official commented that Pakistan’s major cities were rapidly becoming unmanageable mainly because there were no short, medium- and long-term planning, so haphazard expansion was underway, multiplying difficulties for inhabitants’ manifold with each passing day.