Islamabad; April 6, 2017: Meeting of the Standing Committee on Housing and Works was held under the convenership of Mr. Rajab Ali Khan Baloch in Parliament House, Islamabad, this afternoon.

The Committee was briefed by the Director General, Federal Government Employees Housing Foundation (FGEHF) with regard to the acquisition of land process of Thallian Interchange Joint Venture Housing Project, availability and access from Islamabad-Lahore Motorway along with its site plan, maps etc. He informed the Committee that fifteen companies had participated in the prequalification process, out of 15 companies, 7 companies were short listed. Later on, one company was qualified for the Thallian Interchange Joint Venture Housing Project. He added that an agreement was signed with the commitment that qualified company will provide 7000-10,000 kanal land in specific areas, accordingly they have been provided 1400 kanal land till date, which is under survey process by the FGEHF. He further stated that they have been offered 4800 kanal more land so far.

Director General, FGEHF apprised the Committee that government was not paying any funds in advance to party B (land provider), therefore, government has zero risk for building of that project. However, the Committee was of the view that government was collecting public money for the development etc. The Director General, FGEHF said that FGEHF will provide premium on the deposit of public money, instead of deduction at the time of refund, if required by someone. He said that negotiations for construction of interchange at Thallian with FWO and NHA were under process. He also informed the Committee that government will subsidize the cost of development from commercial areas to the said project.

The Committee has shown its apprehensions on the awaited title of project and procedure adopted by the government for acquisition of land and selection of land provider. The Committee has shown its observation on the distribution of commercial area by the ratio of 10% and 90% for government and land provider, respectively. The Committee has directed the Director General, FGEHF for providing the following documents to the Committee for its consideration, before the next meeting.

i.                     Copy of the summary submitted to the Cabinet in 2016.

ii.                   Approval of the Cabinet in this regard.

iii.                 Details of 15 companies participated for prequalification.

iv.                 Details of 7 short listed companies along with their offers.

v.                   Details of selected company along with offer.

The Committee decided that next meeting would be convened shortly and remaining agenda pertaining to Bhara Kahu Housing Scheme will be considered, however, Director General informed the Committee that FGEHF have been informed the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) that mediation process adopted by the NAB for resolving the issue between developer and government has been failed, therefore, necessary legal action should be taken in this regard.

The meeting was attended by MNAs; Rana Zahid Hussain Khan, Mr. Nasir Iqbal Bosal,  Ms. Tahira Aurangzeb,  Ms. Khalida Mansoor,  Mrs. Shahida Rehmani,  Mr. Sajid Nawaz Khan, Mr. Ghulam Sarwar Khan, Mr. Iqbal Muhammad Ali Khan,  Molana Ameer Zaman, Secretary M/o Housing and other senior officers of the concerned departments.