Parliamentary committee facing difficulties in getting govt houses vacated

Author: By Siddique Sajid

ISLAMABAD: A parliamentary committee is facing difficulties and unbearable pressure from the Ministry of Housing and Works and the estate office to get the list of 500 retired bureaucrats who had not vacated the government accommodations despite many notices, parliamentary sources disclosed to the Daily Times.

“We are asking time and again to the housing ministry and the estate office for the names of occupants but every time they provide an incomplete list that is not acceptable”, one of the officials of the National Assembly Standing Committee on Housing and Works said.

Sources said that these retired officials were not even paying the rent of these houses and they were illegal occupants of Grades 17 to 22. They had served on various important posts and no one succeeded in getting the government houses vacated from these retired officers.

“Retired officials could have the government accommodations only for three months after their retirement but now it is years and years but these retired bureaucrats are using their Influence to keep the government houses with them”, committee sources said.

A sub-committee of the housing under Rajab Ali Baloch is working on this but this committee has also failed to get the list of these 500 retired bureaucrats as the ministry of housing is not cooperating with it. So the chairman committee warned the ministry officials that if they would not provide the complete list then the committee would send this case to the FIA or NAB, sources said. The National Assembly Standing Committee on Housing and Works will meet today (Wednesday) under the chairmanship of Haji Akram Ansari in Peshwar and will look into this matter.

The sources said that the names of ex IG Shoaib Suddle and officers like him were in the list as well but the ministry provided an incomplete list so the committee may a strong action in this issue as well. “We will discuss the performance of Pakistan Public Works Department in Peshwar as well as there were many complaints of corruption in PWD”, the sources said.