GUJRAT: The district administration on Friday sealed the offices of New Metro City Sara-i-Alamgir over a number of complaints and plans of launching an extension block allegedly without getting approval from the authorities concerned.

The officials of the district council, land revenue department and police reached the admin block in front of the housing society and immediately sealed its main block, a senior official told Dawn.

He said the housing scheme had scheduled to organise an event on Saturday in connection with the launch of its extension where investors and real estate dealers had been invited. He added that the housing scheme management had never submitted any application for the approval nor had it been authorised to execute such plans.

Sara-i-Alamgir Assistant Commissioner Farooq-i-Azam said the action had been taken by the district council on the basis of various issues.

A senior official of the land revenue department said that at least 40 to 50 complaints by the owners of the land in surroundings of the New Metro City had already been under process as the management of housing society would often encroach upon the land of the complainants that had been a serious cause of law and order issues in the area. He added that the housing scheme had sold thousands of files of plots even when legal matters of its first phase were not fully legalized. He asked how the scheme could launch its extension project without going into the legal process. Moreover, the official added, that National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and some other agencies concerned had also been probing the affairs of these illegal activities of the housing societies in the area. He said that the affairs of at least six other housing schemes located in the Pabbi area between Kharian and Sara-i-Alamgir had also not been approved by the authorities concerned but these schemes had already plundered billions of rupees from the locals as well as overseas Pakistanis without delivering land to them.

The district administration has issued warning notices to the public as well as the management of these housing schemes to refrain from any sale and purchase activities until legal approvals of their projects.

It is pertinent to mention that the offices and vehicles of the New Metro City had been burnt by the mob after its security guards had shot a farmer dead for offering resistance to the illegal encroachment on his land by the society around three years ago. The complaints of illegally occupying the land of the local farmers by force could not be stopped in the area.

In 2022-23, the management of New Metro City had fraudulently managed to get the illegal mutation of at least 1,000 kanals of land of more than 100 farmers in the Mandi Bahauddin district. The administration had initiated legal action against those involved in the scam and subsequently the land had been mutated back to the original owners within a year after going through the legal process.

Published in Dawn, September 21st, 2024