ISLAMABAD: A federal minister of state has accused the chairman of the Evacuee Trust Property Board, a federal government institution meant to look after properties and places of worship of non-Muslims, of wasting Rs4 billion in misadventures over the last four years.

“In 2008, the ETPB had Rs8 billion in savings, which according to my information dropped to Rs4 billion in 2012 and meanwhile the organisation hasn’t taken up any major development project,” said Mr Akram Masih Gill, the Minister of State for National Harmony.

The board management has been involved only in selling and buying property through shady deals which led to the huge loss, claimed Mr Gill in the Public Accounts Committee, which met here at the Parliament House on Wednesday.

Mr Gill who belongs to the PML-Q severely criticised ETPB Chairman Asif Hashmi, a known PPP loyalist, and said that he had been constantly receiving complaints from Sikhs, Hindus and other minorities about mismanagement of their places of worships, but he (Hashmi) was not willing to listen to anybody.

Ms Yasmin Rehman of the PPP chaired the meeting which was attended by Mr Gill, the only other PAC member. The PAC took up relevant paragraphs of the audit of the ministry of minority affairs which has been re-named as ministry of national harmony.

Hamid Yar Hiraj of the PML-Q joined the meeting when it was about to end. Other members appear to have gone on early Eid break.

Taking advantage of adequate time available to him in the absence of other PAC members, Mr Gill made a strong case against Mr Hashmi. He also accused him of stuffing the board with his favourite people on high salary packages, who hardly had any professional background.

Mr Gill added: “Late Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto is on record to have said that a non-Muslim should be made chairman of the board, but it is continuously being run by a Muslim who unfortunately has miserably failed in discharging his duties.”

Giving a specific example of damage caused to the board’s property, Mr Gill said the ETPB had suffered a loss of Rs900 million in a deal about land exchange with Defence Housing Authority in Lahore.

It’s because of Mr Hashmi’s dictatorial nature and total disregard for government rules, he alleged, that no federal secretary was willing to work with him. Mr Ijaz Chaudhry is the seventh federal secretary to have been sent to the ministry of national harmony.

When the questions were presented to ETPB’s Deputy Chairman Riaz Chaudhry, he had practically no answers. About the financial health of the board, he said it had at present only Rs4 billion, and sought time to say how much the board had back in 2008.

About the land exchange deal with DHA, Mr Riaz Chaudhry claimed it was a mutual arrangement; a piece of land was exchanged by the two parties and the deal didn’t involve any cash payment. But Mr Gill insisted on the amount of loss suffered by the board and said a prime piece of land had been given to the DHA in return for land which was yet to be developed. The minister also accused the ETPB management of keeping all its record at a secret place and not in the office. He said an investment officer named Faizan had been given this task.

About other cases of land lease which Mr Hashmi had awarded to various parties over the years, Mr Chaudhry claimed that the chairman was legally entitled to do so. But Mr Gill and audit officials present on the occasion insisted that the chairman couldn’t do so without informing the federal government beforehand.

The act under which the ETPB is run also came under discussion at the meeting. Mr Gill told the committee that the chairman could recommend the appointment of as many non-official members on its board of governors as he wanted. At present, the ETPB has 12 non-official members on its board who according Mr Gill, are close friends of Mr Hashmi and no input has been taken from his ministry about them. The secretary, Ijaz Chaudhry, said he had also noticed the anomaly and would write to the prime minister for remedial measures.

The committee was informed that the board had 114,000 acres of agriculture land across the country and 46,000 building units, but unfortunately they were being mismanaged.