Story of Looted Pakistan

Insiders continue to reveal disgusting details of greed Monday, December 17, 2007, The News international, Pakistan
By By Ansar Abbasi

ISLAMABAD: As details of wealth accumulated by the top bureaucrats of the country continue to unravel, The News was told on Sunday not one but far too many officers had more than 20 plots, gas stations, commercials plazas and large tracts of land obtained as agro-farms.

A recently-retired federal secretary, who originally belonged to the Income Tax group, told The News it would be wrong to conclude that there was only one "poor" federal secretary who owned 20 residential and commercial plots.

"Go and scan the wealth tax records in the FBR of serving and retired key bureaucrats and you would find many such property grabbers," revealed the retired officer, who himself has been a part of the FBR, which, till recently for more than 35 years, was called the Central Board of Revenue (CBR).

Bureaucrats’ unending greed for plots and perks has today become a hot topic, particularly within the bureaucratic circles after some proposals were recently forwarded for the consideration of the Secretaries' Committee, seeking additional perks for the federal secretaries and additional/senior joint secretaries (BS-22 and BS-21 officers). The Secretaries Committee has yet to consider these proposals, which include recommendation for the provision of official cars to the retired/retiring secretaries on depreciated price as offered to retired judges, and to enhance their entitlement to five-star hotels during their outstation visits.

Only last year following the recommendations of the Secretaries Committee, the president had offered additional perks and privileges to the retired/retiring secretaries to bring them at par with the retired/retiring military generals.

The additional perks received by this selected class of bureaucracy include an additional residential plot in Islamabad, life time post-retirement orderly/driver and 20 percent additional salary.

The recently retired federal secretary said there was no dearth of officials who in the past grabbed plots in every district that they had served. "Many own petrol pumps, allotted to them in cities like Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi while several have commercial plazas in different major cities."

Many in the bureaucracy believe that some top members of the bureaucracy played a dirty role in polluting the mind of the government against the pre-Nov 3 judiciary, which had posed serious threats to the vested interest of the top bureaucrats and the country's elite.

The deposed Chief Justice and some other judges had not only brought into question, through suo moto notices, the issue of the allotment of additional residential plots to the federal secretaries in Islamabad but had also directed the Capital Development Authority to issue notices to the owners of Islamabad agro-farms. These two actions by the SC had annoyed not only the country's top bureaucracy but the much more powerful elite owning the Islamabad agro-farms, which during the recent years have become a new status symbol.

In one case, the government was asked as to why was the Islamabad land being distributed like sweets amongst a selected class of the bureaucracy while through the second suo moto notice the CDA was directed to regularize the use of the agro-farms, which were originally created to grow vegetables, boost poultry and dairy industry but had been turned into farm houses for the country's elite.

Although, the CDA issued notices to several dozen violators but after the departure of the pre-Nov 3 judiciary, the issue was pushed under the rug.