Daily Times

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the Nation Assembly has been told that the Rangers and the Pakistan Army are using the 1,000 acres of Pakistan Railways (PR) lands for agricultural and commercial purposes. The committee was hearing the issue of encroachment of eight acres of prime land belonging to PR in Rawalpindi by an army housing scheme. In some instances, the Army and Rangers took the trouble to getting the land on lease, albeit at throwaway price by using their clout, in others they simply occupied the land illegally. The Army and the Ranger have yet to pay where they legally leased the land. However, nobody has the guts to question them. The most telling remark was made by a railways official who, when asked to explain the mismanagement of lands, said, “It is odd to tell you how the men with guns behave with our officers.”

This is just one example of what is wrong with our polity and how the overarching influence of the military in national affairs has led to the deterioration of state institutions. In a hearing in September 2010, PAC had been informed that 4,231 acres of PR was in illegal possession of government departments and private individuals. Till recently a special parliamentary committee constituted by National Assembly Speaker Fehmida Mirza had been dealing with another high profile leasing scam of PR Royal Palm Golf and Country Club land to a private party during Musharraf regime, involving three retired generals. Reportedly, this case has been dropped by the ruling party for expedient reasons.

It is surprising that the PR has been consistently making losses and did not consider boosting its income by putting to use prime lands in its possession through out the country. Instead, more powerful institutions and private individuals have been using its property for their own benefit. The Privatisation Commission has now put up the details of PR on its website for prospective parties interested in its buying. Is this the fate all state institutions, which are purposely not improved so that these could then be sold at throwaway prices on the pretext that they are bleeding the national exchequer. Does it not give the impression of vultures patiently waiting for their victim to die in the desert before they pounce upon it? Although the PAC chairman has assured the PR officials that the elected body will stand by their beleaguered department and take this case to its logical conclusion, considering the fate of investigations into Royal Palm lands leasing, this assertion seems doubtful. *