Re: A small yet frustrating example of how things work in Pakistan…
Even the politcians now chastising the Army for kicking people off thier land and livelihood
PAC accuses military of misusing land
ISLAMABAD, Jan 27: The Public Accounts Committee of the National Assembly on Saturday took a serious notice of the Ministry of Defence’s failure to pay compensation to owners of land acquired for military cantonments in various parts of the country decades ago and use of such land for commercial or agricultural purposes.
In 1960s and 1970s, 8,930 acres of land were acquired from farmers for the Gujranwala Cantonment at a price of Rs1,500 per acre.
The Land Acquisition Collector (LAC) did not pay owners of the land the Rs41.56 million compensation amount released by the defence ministry.
The land was now being sold at millions of rupees per kanal for commercial purposes, the committee was informed by the audit department.
The PAC told defence secretary Lt-Gen (retd) Tariq Waseem Ghazi that his ministry had adopted a “hands-up approach” to numerous issues of the same nature in which either land was used for commercial purposes or distribution of compensation to owners was delayed by the ministry at different levels.
“On the one hand, people were deprived of a constant source of income (farm land) and on the other, they were seldom paid compensation,” observed member Qamar Zaman Kaira.
According to the audit department, the military estate office (MEO), Multan, acquired 5,000 acres in Pirowal, Khanewal district, from the forest department at Rs250 million.
The land was acquired for a new cantonment as sanctioned by the government in June 1994. But one year later, cultivation was started on 4,975 acres and a milk centre was established on the remaining 25 acres.
The MEO also acquired 34,462 acres from the Punjab government in Sargodha in 1984 for defence purposes. But now, some of the land is being used for agricultural purposes and the Pakistan Air Force leased out 3,000 plots of 100 kanal each of the same land.
Till year 2000, the PAF had earned Rs25 million from the lease, which was never deposited in the government’s treasury.
The issue ignited a heated debate after ruling Pakistan Muslim League MNA Akbar Ali Vains said various departments, handed over to the military by civilian governments in the past for improving their performance and removing corruption, were now performing even worse.
“If even our military and generals have failed to improve the performance of the departments they head, we can only pray (for these departments to perform well),” Mr Vains said. His comment changed the facial expression of the defence secretary, who immediately asked the MNA to refrain from issuing categorical statements and see positive aspects of military administrations as well.
But Nisar Ali Khan told the defence secretary to take criticism in healthy spirit. He said if the defence ministry was so efficient, why the audit department had presented bulky files containing reservations over its accounts and functioning to the PAC.
He said a single telephone call by a military general to the Punjab chief minister could make the Land Acquisition Commissioner pay compensation to land owners within hours. But in fact, it showed the lack of interest on behalf of the ministry.
“This is a symbolic case of how inefficient and incapable these departments are,” said member and PML-N MNA Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan.
The committee directed the defence ministry to resolve all cases of similar nature within two months on its own because they were destroying the committee’s time.
The audit department informed the meeting that the LAC had also not passed on the Rs22.76 million compensation amount to owners of 284 kanals of land acquired in the Rajar village, Gujrat district, for defence purposes in 1987.
The committee stressed the need for a new formula of land assessment in order to pay reasonable compensation to owners of land being acquired for defence purposes. It observed that people should either be paid compensation as per market rates or very close to such rates.
Nisar Ali Khan said it was a common observation land acquired on throw-away prices for defence purposes was used for commercial purposes as was evident from the audit department’s reports. This practice needed to be discouraged strongly, he said.
The committee was informed that 22 pieces of ‘class A-1’ land situated in the Lahore Cantonment was being used for commercial purposes in violation of the Cantonment Land Administration Rules, 1937, which says that such land could not be used for purpose other than military buildings, military recreational, parade grounds and playgrounds, rifle ranges, grass farms etc. The Rs1.33 billion amount received through premium and rent of the land was never deposited in the government’s treasury.
Member Qamar Zaman Kaira said due to the absence of a parliamentary system (since prime minister Nawaz Sharif was ousted), the PAC was handling a backlog of audit cases stretched over a period of nine years. Four sub-committees of the PAC had been formed to handle the cases.
He said that in other countries, there were no national accountability bureaus, but in fact, public accounts committees dealt with such issues. He asked the defence ministry to engage its joint secretaries and sections officers in such issues to resolve them without further delay and ensure that intra-departmental issues were not brought to the committee.