Senior Provincial Minister Mian Aslam Iqbal has said that decision has been taken to take stern action against all the illegal housing societies across the province.
Addressing a hard-hitting press conference at 90- Shahra e Quaid-e-Azam, Aslam Iqbal, who also holds the portfolio of Housing and Urban Development, said that the action will be taken without any discrimination. He was of the view that Punjab including Lahore is in the grip of land grabbers for the last 25 years but now it has been decided that action will be taken against all these grabbers who minted money in the name of developing housing societies. “The land grabber mafia has become so strong that law enforcement agencies are seemed helpless in front of them,” said Aslam Iqbal.
It is worth mentioning here that the presser of Aslam Iqbal was held days after the housing society owned by PTI’s former stalwart Aleem Khan was raided in Lahore by the officials of the Punjab government. A large contingency of Police including the officials of RUDA, LDA and Anti-Riots Force raided the housing society owned by Aleem Khan at Multan Road. Still, they faced resistance from the private guards owned by the society. Later, the police arrested more than two dozen security guards of Park View City (River Edge Housing Society) owned by Aleem Khan and they are still in the custody of the police. The action was initiated days after Chief Minister constituted a committee to take action against illegal housing societies in Punjab.
“The poor man sells everything of his own and buys a plot in these illegal societies but later he finds out that he has been deceived,” said Aslam Iqbal, while addressing the press conference on Sunday. He further added that the fraud of 50 billion rupees was found in the River Edge Housing Scheme and more than 10,000 people were affected by this scam. According to Aslam Iqbal, the land grabber who minted money from the poor people is now travelling in private jets. “He has also bought a private TV channel to use this platform for the character assassination of the people,” the minister said. Aslam Iqbal was of the view that Aleem Khan also enjoys the backing of the federal government these days. He further added that the owner of the illegal housing society submitted an application in 2012 for expansion of the River Edge Housing Scheme but it was rejected by LDA as it was being built on agricultural land. The Secretary of Housing also dismissed the application as it was in a green area as per the Master Plan of 2004 where no building was allowed to be constructed, he added. Then they went to court and got a stay order and continued to carry out development work in this illegal residential scheme. According to Senior Minister, LDA sent them 17 notices from 2010 to 2022 but they did not stop development work on this illegal land. He also revealed that LDA has made it clear several times that construction can be done only on 765 kanals of land in the said housing scheme but the land mafia started construction in the river belt in sheer violation of the law. “Whenever the action was taken against illegal constructions, the private guards resorted to violence and attacked the officers,” he added. Taking a jibe at former PTI’s stalwart and now a PML-N leader, Aslam Iqbal said that it was a misconception of Aleem Khan that PTI cannot be run without his support. “Aleem Khan should select any constituency of Lahore as I am ready to contest against him being a worker of Imran Khan,” Aslam Iqbal challenged.
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