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Posted by aka in ENVIRONMENT-PLANET EARTH, Islamabad Diary on April 25th, 2018
This super cracker scandal originates right in the heart of Islamabad and that too on Constitution Avenue.
The Grand Hyatt currently under construction in Islamabad on a 13.5-acre (55,000 m2) site (6.75 hectares).
This development consists of a 45-storey hotel and serviced apartments tower along with two smaller 20-storied residential & office towers. The smaller towers are linked together by means of a bridge at the 20th floor, aligned with the axis of the Constitution Avenue.
The land for Grand Hyatt land in Islamabad was sold to the Bismillah Group for peanuts, i.e Rs. 1.9 Billion by CDA.
This is a separate matter, as to Who is behind Bismillah Group ? Or this Bismillah Group owner is the elder brother of Al- Rahmet Group, the party which bought Sharif’s property pledged to banks on account of their default on bank loans.
Later, Sharif family had informed that sale agreement of Ittefaq groups four units had been finalised with Al- Rehmat group. He said that Al- Rahmet group would buy the units for Rs. 6 billion and schedule of payment had also been decided. So properties were sold to this for Al-Rehmat Group for Rs. 6 billion in order to compensate against defaulted Bank loans.
However, knowledge people say, that present Market value of the four units was priced between Rs.22-25 billion.
But wait.
Here’s the brilliant move. The payment to CDA is to be made in very easy instalments over 13 years.
And Here’s even more brilliance.
Not a single Rs has been paid to CDA as yet but the Authority has very generously transferred legal ownership to the Bismillah Group.
And the final piece in this brilliant broad daylight highway robbery is this.
This outstanding very well connected owner in cahoots with all the powers that be then uses this land as collateral for a Rs 5 Billion loan from the Bank of Punjab to develop the Project.
Who says money doesn’t grow on trees and cannot be created out of thin air.
Apparently, the Public Accounts Committee was apprised of this huge white collar daylight robbery by the Auditor Generals office.
It is said that even the likes of Syed Khurshid Shah were heard saying ….” this is too much even I haven’t seen such blatant and brazen corruption and misuse of power and authority”.
Result? No action. No article in any paper. No talk show. Quite on all fronts.
Rauf Klasara only hinted yesterday on the scam in very few words. I was alerted when the name of Haroon Pasha appeared on the TV screen.
The real owners of this property must have really everything under tight control.
The issue has been under investigation by FIA.
Only yesterday, Ch Nisar in a press conference expressed his absolute helplessness in this scam, saying that he is under extreme pressure.
Apparently, all this is available in the records of the Auditor General of Pakistan’s office as well.
According to Rauf Klasra, the man allegedly behind the whole affair is Haroon Pasha – Advisor to the Sharifs in London and Jeddah.
The Chief Minister of KP’s previous government, using his own discretionary powers allotted a large plot to himself at Dunga Galli.
Six close relatives of the sitting prime minister have ‘manoeuvred’ to own extravagant residences at priced locations in Dunga Gali and Nathia Gali.
It was Akram Khan Durrani who alloted himself a corner plot in Dunga Galli overlooking a sloping hill, which too has become his property. The contractor who built the house for Akram Durrani was an official NWFP Building and Roads department contractor who used govt funds and material for the same.
The same contractor was hired by the Sharif family to build their mansion a couple of hundred yards away on instructions of Durrani.
The 800-meter kutcha trail to the Sharif residence from Dunga Gali bazar was concreted and widened, and street light poles erected through the courtesy of Ameer Haider Hoti the C.M of ANP government a couple of years later. A 1.5-kilometer water illegal pipeline was laid by Hoti’s govt from a Chashma exclusively for the Sharif mansion. The neighbourhood approached the govt for their share of water from the pipeline but was turned down.
During the construction period, two suites of Govt House Nathiagali remained in the possession of Sharifs, besides the complete Resthouse at Dunga Galli Water Tanks for the staff.
Similarly quite a few owners of adjacent plots were forced to sell their plots to the Sharifs, again courtesy of NWFP Govt. One complainant was Asma Jahangeer who stood her ground!
A fine example of close cooperation between so-called political rivals!
Unbelievable. INCREDIBLE.
The Khoon League criminals— sorry, politicians– were painting a different picture in order to divert the masses’ attention from their crimes.
Hope the PLM–N ( the Punjab Loot Maar-Nuaserbaaz ) Party will take pity on the poor Punjabis and learn something from the KP government.
I hope Mulla Diesel ( MD ) will start speaking the truth for a change. Unnoticed in the heat of the moment and the prejudices of the politics, a quiet but remarkable change is taking place in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Even a casual visitor cannot help observing that every child that you come across is attending school, that teachers are present in classrooms and doctors are available at the rural health centres.
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The Public Trust Doctrine, now a part of common law, recognises natural resources like air, sea, water and the forests as public property and considers it unjustified to make them a subject of private ownership. The Supreme Court of India in its recent judgements has declared that the state is the trustee of all natural resources which are meant for public use and enjoyment.
The public at large is the real owner of the beaches, running waters, airs, forests and ecologically fragile lands, while the state is only a custodian. Such resources should be made freely accessible to all citizens and not converted to private ownership.
Invariably the well-connected politicians, bureaucrats, generals, judges and corporates manage to get these plots allotted for themselves.
The Chief Minister of KP’s previous government, using his own discretionary powers allotted a large plot to himself at Dunga Galli.
Six close relatives of the sitting prime minister have ‘manoeuvred’ to own extravagant residences at priced locations in Dunga Gali and Nathia Gali.
An ex-chairman of Senate now owns 16 Kanals of public property on the hilltops of Dunga Gali.
There are hundreds of other similar examples where the friends, relatives and cronies have been benefitted by each successive government.
The development of hill resorts appears to focus exclusively on appeasing its privileged residents. Trees are being uprooted to widen the roads solely to please this polluting class, now whizzing through (rather than walking) in their noisy and smoke-emitting luxury land cruisers. One can get some idea of the level of noise pollution and carbon emission by the fact that 200,000 vehicles transited from Murree on Eid day in 2015.
There is an urgent need to rethink ‘development’ on the hilltops. There should be a complete ban on all land allotment and construction. Invoking the doctrine of public trust, owners should be made to surrender the already allotted land and be suitably compensated. All 47 government guest houses currently being used by government officials and their families should be opened to the public. The ‘katcha’ trails should be left in their perennial condition and saved from decorative ‘eviscerating’ that benefits only the contractors and brick makers.
A ‘park and ride’ system could be introduced, making all vehicles park and then having people use shuttle services beyond a certain point. Private cars entering the ‘Galiyat’ roads ought to be heavily taxed. Most homes and hotels release their raw sewage directly down the slopes of the mountains. All such premises be fined heavily and closed down till they can build effective septic tanks.
Likewise, the slopes and trails are riddled with plastic bottles and solid waste. GDA could learn from Singapore where one would be fined $2000 for littering the first time and then up to $10,000 for the subsequent convictions.
Despite heavy rainfall, there is a shortage of water supply in the ‘Galiyat’. Almost no one appears to be utilising the sloping roofs for the collection of rainwater – which can be easily achieved by installing trays at the lower surface of the slopes and collecting the water in storage tanks.
Finally a request on behalf of the butterflies and birds of the pipeline trail between Dunga Gali and Ayubia. Please ban the movement of motorbikes on this path so that we can live our lives without rubbing shoulders with the polluting elite of Pakistan.?
Absolutely shocking.
This super cracker scandal originates right in the heart of Islamabad and that too on Constitution Avenue.
The Grand Hyatt currently under construction in Islamabad on a 13.5-acre (55,000 m2) site (6.75 hectares).
This development consists of a 45-storey hotel and serviced apartments tower along with two smaller 20-storied residential & office towers. The smaller towers are linked together by means of a bridge at the 20th floor, aligned with the axis of the Constitution Avenue.
The land for Grand Hyatt land in Islamabad was sold to the Bismillah Group for peanuts, i.e Rs. 1.9 Billion by CDA.
This is a separate matter, as to Who is behind Bismillah Group? Or this Bismillah Group is the elder brother of Al- Rahmet Group, party which brought Sharif’s property pledged to banks on account of their default on bank loans.
Later, Sharif family had informed that sale agreement of Ittefaq groups four units had been finalised with Al- Rehmat group. He said that Al- Rahmet group would buy the units for Rs. 6 billion and schedule of payment had also been decided. So properties were sold to this for Al-Rehmat Group for Rs. 6 billion in order to compensate against defaulted Bank loans.
However, knowledge people say, that present Market Value of the four units was something between Rs.22-25 billion.
But wait.
Here’s the brilliant move. The payment to CDA is to be made in very easy instalments over 13 years.
And Here’s even more brilliance.
Not a single Rs has been paid to CDA as yet but the Authority has very generously transferred legal ownership to the Bismillah Group.
And the final piece in this brilliant broad daylight highway robbery is this.
This outstanding very well connected owner in cahoots with all the powers that be then uses this land as collateral for a Rs 5 Billion loan from the Bank of Punjab to develop the Project.
Who says money doesn’t grow on trees and cannot be created out of thin air.
Apparently, the Public Accounts Committee was apprised of this huge white collar daylight robbery by the Auditor Generals office.
It is said that even the likes of Syed Khurshid Shah were heard saying …” this is too much even I haven’t seen such blatant and brazen corruption and misuse of power and authority”.
What is the result? No action? No article in any paper. No talk show. Quiet on all fronts.
Rauf Klasara only hinted yesterday on the scam in very few words. I was alerted when the name of Haroon Pasha appeared on the TV screen.
The real owners of this property must have really everything under tight control.
The issue has been under investigation by FIA.
Only yesterday, Ch Nisar in a press conference expressed his absolute helplessness in this scam, saying that he is under extreme pressure.
Apparently, all this is available in the records of the Auditor General of Pakistan’s office as well.
According to Rauf Klasra, the man allegedly behind the whole affair is Haroon Pasha – Advisor to the Sharifs in London and Jeddah.
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