One of the Pakistan Railways (PR) properties in Chaman measuring 6.03 acres of land had been transferred in the name of PTCL. Ministry of Railways has claimed an amount of Rs 13.828 billion as cost of land and arrears of occupational charges including interest from January 01, 1972 to December 31, 2011, as per following break up; (a) cost of property/land, Rs 5.258 billion and (b) occupational charges including interest, Rs 8.233 billion.
Secretary Finance Division Shahid Mehmood said the Division only undertook to pay the value of the properties ie cost of the property rather than arrears of occupational charges and interest. Also, the payment of properties only qualifies after their valuation by independent evaluators.
Earlier, Finance Division with the approval of finance minister conveyed to Pakistan Railways and other stakeholders that the value of the properties shall be paid to them whenever the balance amount of $800 million, pending on part of Etisalat, is received to the government of Pakistan.
In order to resolve the issue, a meeting was held in the Finance Division on 20-12-2017. Additional Finance Secretary (CF) chaired the meeting while representatives of SBP, M/o Railways and Economic Affairs Division attended the same. The participants agreed that the cost of the property amounting to Rs 5.258 billion is very high.
The chair clearly intimated that Finance Division stands by its commitment of paying only the cost of Chaman property; however, the price needs to be determined by independent evaluators. The Finance Division shall not pay the cost of occupational charges, interest or any other charges of Chaman property.
Accordingly, M/o Railways was asked to provide the report of the independent evaluators and submit a revised claim. The Finance Division is committed to providing the cost of the property as and when the subject report is received. The Railways Ministry agreed and proposed SBP as independent evaluator.
The committee directed the concerned ministries/division to report both the Deputy Commissioner as well as the rate to be finalized by the SBP within two week. The committee also discussed the railways land under illegal occupation across the country in the light of decision of the Supreme Court of Pakistan and steps taken by the provincial governments for its vacation. Railways Ministry informed that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has almost mutated railways land on its (PR) name while Balochistan is progressing on the issue; however, Sindh and Punjab have not cooperated so far.
The committee decided to invite attorney general and secretary law and all the chief secretaries in the next meeting to seek their guidance in implementation of the apex court order. The senior member Revenue Punjab and other officials briefed the meeting regarding the land occupied by the Shalimar Hospital and land transferred to DHA Bahawalpur, but failed to satisfy it with respect to their ownership claims on the land. The committee directed both sides to come up with full preparations and required documents in the next meeting where final decision with respect to the land ownership would be taken.