Retrieved state land to be used for public welfare projects

LAHORE: Special Assistant to Chief Minister (SACM) for Information and spokesperson of Punjab government Hasaan Khawar has said state land has always been considered easiest prey by Qabza Mafia.

Due to this, some 223,000 acre state land belonging to Forest, Revenue, Auqaf and other departments and worth Rs472 billion was brazenly occupied. Of this, 7,000 acres were in urban and about 216,000 were in rural areas. On the special instructions of Prime Minister Imran Khan, so far, one hundred and eighty thousand acres of this encroached land has been retrieved.

These views were expressed by the SACM during a press conference here at Al-Hamra. He said that the relinquished land would be handed over to the departments concerned and this land would be used for projects of public welfare.

He said Usman Buzdar has strictly directed for the retrieval of the remaining 35,000 acres in the next five weeks. Hassan Khawar said that encroachment upon government lands was not possible without the connivance of sitting government, government officials and the Qabza Mafia. A forensic audit of fires in the previous government will prove this point.

Hasaan Khawar said that these 223,000 cases of encroachment were in fact receipts of the incompetence of the previous government.

Responding to a question, he said that although 43 people from the identified Qabza Mafia have been cabinet and assembly members of the previous government, it was not correct to call the action against the occupation groups as a political revenge.