Govt gives three housing units each to 19 bureaucrats

A total of 19 bureaucrats of grade BS-22 secured three housing units each, including Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Establishment Shehzad Arbab.

According to the papers obtained by Dawn, the officers had already been allotted a double-story “grey structures” house each in the Pakistan Housing Authority Foundation (PHAF) scheme.

The PHAF traditionally built low-cost housing schemes for its members and this was the first time that it introduced a scheme for senior bureaucrats.

Previously, former prime minister Nawaz Sharif had cancelled the allotment of “choice” apartments to influential bureaucrats in the same locality [PHAF] and ordered an investigation into the manipulated balloting carried out by the housing scheme.

Not only this, the official documents say that 185 of the 588 bureaucrats right after this allotment were allotted plots in the capital’s new sectors of F-14 and F-15.

Following this, the Federal Government Employees Housing Authority (FGEHA) recently allotted two plots each to senior bureaucrats, judges of superior courts, lawyers, and judicial officers of Islamabad’s subordinate judiciary.

Earlier, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) ruled against the allotment of more than one plot to top bureaucrats at public expense under Article 25 of the Pakistan Constitution and then set aside the policy of allotment of the second plot and referred the matter to the federal cabinet.

While talking to Dawn, Federal Minister for Law and Justice Barrister Farogh Naseem said the allotments would be examined in light of the IHC judgment. Federal information minister Fawad Chaudhry said, “The government is working on the issue in the light of the IHC directive and has formed a committee as well.”

Initially, civil servants were entitled to one plot each only. However, in 2006, the then prime minister allowed two plots each for BS-22 officials.

However, an insider said the policy to make such allotments had never been approved by the federal government.