ISLAMABAD, Dec 20: Although Estate Office has stopped giving extensions to the retired bureaucrats occupying government accommodation, it could not get 46 houses vacated from them.

Besides, over 1,000 court cases are major impediment in reclaiming the houses.

On an average daily two petitions are filed in district and Islamabad High Court for stay orders against the eviction, an officer, Qaiser Mehmood, said.

A house in sector G-6/1-2 is a case in point as it has been in litigation for the last 12 years.

Original allottee of the house died on September 20, 1999 and, according to rules, his family had to leave the house after one year but they obtained stay from the district court.

Seven government employees tried to get the house vacated but they failed. Last one was an LDC, Nabila Tabassum, working in the Ministry of Law and Justice, who was allotted the house on May 31, 2010 but failed to get the house even after going tocourt.

Some two months back the daughter of the deceased, a teacher, filed an application in estate office to get the house transferred in her name.

The sources in Estate Office said increasing house rent in the capital held the government employees back from leaving the house even after retirement. They keep the houses by obtaining stay orders or try to get the government job for their child totransfer the house in his/her name.

There are around 17,000 government houses in the federal capital.

A government officer on condition of anonymity said he succeeded in allotting a house in his wife’s name in sector G-6 but the resident, a retired officer, obtained a stay order from the district court as a result of which he could not get the possession ofthe house.

“It is becoming impossible to evict a retired person from government house. And if a retired person is a bureaucrat and an influential person, he even does not bother to have a stay order from the court. They don’t vacate the house,” he said.

Associate Professor of Burn Surgery (BS-19) and Head of Burn Care Centre at Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences, Dr Tariq Iqbal told Dawn that he had 20 years of government service to his credit.

He was allotted a house in G-6/3 on March 2010 on subject to vacation as at that time the house was held by a DIG and who was to retire on September 2, 2010.  He was allowed to retain that house for six months up to March 1, 2011 despite the fact that he owned a house in G-11/3.

He again managed to get extension of six months upto September 2, 2011.

“The Ministry of Housing and Works ordered immediate vacation of that house and the final notice from the Estate Office was served on him on June 11, 2011. But again, the former DIG, by using his influence and violating all rules and regulations, got another extension up to February 2012,” he alleged.

Estate Officer, Asim Ayub, who has been appointed recently, told Dawn that all the extensions had been canceled and estate office had been trying to get the houses vacated from the occupants. At the time of his appointment there were around 50cases and since then four houses have been vacated.

He said that minister of housing Faisal Saleh Hayat and secretary housing Kamran Lashari had clearly instructed him to reclaim the houses immediately.