MUZAFFARABAD, Sept 13: The AJK Legislative Assembly was told here on Thursday that a ministerial committee was working out terms and conditions for regularising leases of official land and would take the opposition on board in this regard.

The assurance was given by two ministers during the question hour in response to a question by PML-N lawmaker Chaudhry Tariq Farooq who had sought details of the leases in his Bhimber district.

Giving initial response, minister for revenue Chaudhry Ali Shan said that the committee would review all leases and receive price of the leased land according to the market rate from those lessees who had violated lease conditions.

Taking strong exception to the minister’s statement, leader of the opposition Raja Farooq Haider maintained that it amounted to legitimising illegal occupation of official land which opposition would not tolerate.

It is a conspiracy and would encourage people to continue (official) land grabbing in a similar fashion, he said.

Mr Tariq Farooq regretted that in spite of his categorical question the minister had failed to provide the terms and conditions of the leases.

“The Board of Revenue has deliberately hidden these conditions but it’s the responsibility of the minister to ensure correct answers are furnished so that the government does not face any embarrassment in the house,” he said.

Coming to the rescue of his colleague, minister for health Sardar Qamaruz Zaman said the ministerial committee would not finalise its recommendations before opinion of the opposition was also sought.

“Let us assure you that the committee has not been constituted to benefit any particular person,” he said.

In response to a question by PML-N’s Dr Najeeb Naqi, law minister Syed Azhar Hussain Gilani informed the house that ‘water use charges’ of Mangla dam for fiscal year 2011-12 stood at Rs756 million, against which Rs545.98 million had been received (from Wapda) whereas Rs120 million were still outstanding.

However, when pressed for details, the minister sought respite till Friday.

On an “unsatisfactory” response to his question, Muslim Conference lawmaker Sardar Mir Akbar Khan alleged that relatives of health minister had occupied a piece of land in Bagh city which was acquired for construction of Khurshid National Library and the illegal occupants were not being ejected.

Health minister said the land in question was unsuitable for any construction due to which he could not recommend it.

He opposed Mr Khan’s repeated calls for constitution of a house committee to probe the matter “because the matter was sub judice in a civil court.”