PAC ecommended immediate cancellation of a special incentive policy

ISLAMABAD: The Public Accounts Committee of the National Assembly directed the Ministry of Defence to do away with the policy of allotting agricultural land to its senior army officers and stop the practice forthwith.

A meeting of the committee presided over by its chairman Nadeem AfzalGondal unanimously recommended immediate cancellation of a special incentive policy introduced by former prime minister Shaukat Aziz in 2006 under which bureaucrats who reach the maximum BPS-22 and judges of the Supreme Court are provided additional residential plots in Islamabad. So far 236 people, including 21 judges, have benefited from this scheme, while 63 cases are pending. Mr Gondal said the committee was against allotment of huge tracts of land by the defence ministry to its senior generals and had decided to pass a similar directive to the military authorities to stop this practice. However, he clarified that the PAC directive would not affect the allotment of land to widows of martyrs and deserving people. He said that over the years both civil and military bureaucracies had heavily misused the policy of allotment of residential and agricultural lands, but this must end now. However, Mr Gondal had a word of praise for the GHQ providing residences to its officers under a uniform policy and said the PAC had recommended to the Ministry of Housing and Works to implement a similar plan for civil servants. “The committee is not against public servants, but it wants an equitable policy which benefits every government servant,” he said. a senior military officer said the GHQ followed a prescribed criterion for allotment of agricultural land to its officers, adding that mainly families of the martyrs and the officers who suffered from disability during service were accommodated in this scheme. http://rtilive.pk/detail/8163 Right to Information Pakistan Live, RTI Live, Information Pakistan, RTI online Research ORganization,pakistan,news pakistan, pakistan news,punjab,lahore,Public Accounts Committee, National Assembly, Ministry of Defence, chairman Nadeem Afzal Gondal, GHQ,