Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The number one ranked varsity of the country, namely the Quaid-e-Azam University (QAU), is scattered over 1,709 acres area of land in official documents, but on the ground the university owns around only 1500 acres piece of land. The rest of the 210 acres is encroached upon by the locals and some influential politicians.

According to documents available with Daily Times, the varsity, at the time of its establishment in 1967, had been acquired on 1,709 acres of land by the Capital Development Authority (CDA) in the documents but currently the varsity owns land which is quite below this figure.

The QAU sources said that the varsity had paid for 1709 acres land but the CDA granted less land instead. For the purpose to measure the existed land under the varsity ownership, they said, the then management of the university (2006) had requested the Survey of Pakistan (SOP) Rawalpindi for an exact measurement of the university land. The SOP is the body to deal with map sheets and mapping land related matters demanded from various government/ semi-government and autonomous bodies.

“You are requested to direct the concerned staff to work out the exact area from the lay out plan (the varsity fundamental map) inside the boundary”, reads a latter written by Muhammad Ilyas Khan the project director (QAU) to the Surveyor General of the SOP Rawalpindi. Following this the SOP concluded the layout plan map of the varsity.

“The area worked out inside the boundary line showd that the provided layout plan was 1507 acres”, reads a letter signed by Noor Elahi, Deputy Director Training and Research, for the SOP Pakistan.

A senior official of the QAU involved in the entire episode said on the condition of anonymity that a large number of villagers were residing on the varsity land and some had encroached upon the land inside the drawn boundary line by the CDA which according to the sources, was already not fulfillng the size for which the varsity paid the money.

The documents revealed that the area of 286 acres land was under possession of around a dozen small villages inhabited on the varsity land. The varsity already possessed 210 acres piece of land which was under the control of the villagers while they also encroached upon 76 acres of land inside the varsity premises.

The sources said their forefathers had been paid for the land but they failed to leave the possession.

The official said that the villagers were not only residing in the premises but had also cultivated the various seasonal crops in the land. They also petted cattle — roaming round the clock inside the varsity, due to which a study environment in the top ranked institution was being impaired, added the official.

They said that they varsity administration requested repeated times to the agency for the demarcation of the land but nothing happened.

Moreover, the available documentary information states that the Higher Education Commission (HEC) also requested the CDA for the exact demarcation of the on-ground university land.

The CDA’s Public Relation Officer, Malik Saleem, despite repeated efforts, failed to respond for an official version.

The newly elected persons through the local body polls, the Chairman of the Malpure (the inhabited area on the varsity land) Union Council, Mushtaq Chauhdry, told Daily Times that the villagers hadsome outstanding dues with the CDA, adding that they would leave the possession as soon as they get their outstanding dues from the agency. He said that the perception of ‘land mafia’/ ‘land grabber’ about the locals was totally wrong. They are very poor people and requesting the agency for acquiring alternative land for their shelter, if the agency does not want to pay the outstanding amount to them, he added.

The CDA and the QAU should hold a round table discussion with us to find the possible way out over the issue. “The villagers will leave the possession if the agency provides them an alternative place for the construction of their huts”, Mushataq promised.

On the other hand an official at the varsity claimed that they (villagers) will not leave the place even if they would be paid the money even twice or thrice, adding that it was the responsibility of the CDA actually to evacuate the land for which the agency had been paid.

Not only the villagers, but a senior member of the PPP, former chairman senate Syed Nayyer Hussain Bokhari, also have allegedly encroached upon the 50 areas of land of the varsity, revealed the well informed sources at the QAU. On the occupied land piece, the former chairman has built his residence and a large playing ground lies vacant on the front side of the boundary wall of his luxury house.

An informed official in the estate wing of the QAU who wished not to be named, said that there was an Afghan colony inhabited on the ground premises. Bokhari, with the help of the QAU and the CDA evacuated the land saying he had security threats due to the residents of the colony. After evacuation, Bokhari grabbed the land terming that the premises was his personal ownership, the official said, adding that he prohibited the QAU administration from any kind of construction.

Despite repeated attempts to talk to Bokhari on his mobile phone, to find out his stance over the matter, his number was powered off.