Ashiana scheme bigger scam than Tandoors: Pervaiz

our correspondent
LAHORE: PML-Q leader and senior federal minister, Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, has called the Ashiana scheme a bigger scandal than the earlier “Tandoor” drama and said with skyrocketing poverty and a high unemployment rate in Punjab today, how can the poor afford to buy a house for Rs11.5 lakhs in the fraudulent Ashiana Scheme?

Elahi was addressing a meeting with his party leaders at the State Guest House, Lahore on Wednesday and alleged that the money obtained from the poor through the sale of Ashiana application forms had disappeared without a trace. The price of houses had suddenly ncreased while the area for each house was drastically reduced.

Raja Basharat, Chaudhry Zaheer ud Din, Kamil Ali Agha, Arshad Khan Lodhi and Rizwan Mumtaz Ali were also present at the meeting. Earlier in the day, Ch Pervaiz Elahi directed State Guest House officials to prominently display the photograph of the founder of the nation and avoid using government funds for decoration and acquisition of furniture.

Talking to party leaders, he said that the self-proclaimed Khadim-e-Aala was a cheap publicity monger who had destroyed Punjab’s economy to espouse nepotism and corruption. He said public funds to the tune of millions of rupees had been mercilessly wasted on the publicity of the fraudulent Ashiana scheme and ever since huge irregularities were continuously being exposed.

Elahi alleged that the entire balloting process of 2,740 housing units in Lahore was pre-fixed and the lists had already been made. He alleged that in many cases members of the same family had been allotted more than one house. He said that post-balloting scrutiny of the allotments was a proof of this criminal irregularity. He said that a petition against fake balloting of Ashiana houses had been filed in the High Court. He accused the Punjab ruling group of planning to extort huge public funds in the purchase deal of land in the Lahore Barki area and said details of the scam would be made public at an appropriate time.

Elahi said that at the outset of the Ashiana scheme, the Punjab government had fixed the price of a 5-marla house at Rs9 lac but the price was enhanced to Rs11.5 lac and the area of the house reduced to 3 marlas. If this is not enough, he said, the proposed construction site in Lahore was shifted to a place 18 kilometres away from Chungi Amar Saddhu. He said that reputed private developers were selling 5-marla houses for far less prices and in much better locations.

“Only a fraudulent and cheating government can launch a similarly bogus housing scheme in Sargodha when it had failed to take off in Lahore,” Elahi said. “I would have been the first to appreciate the incumbent Punjab government, had the Rs10 billion wasted on the fake Ashiana scheme been allocated for some concrete public welfare project.”

Talking about the plight of last year’s flood affectees, Elahi said thousands of families were still shelter less in South Punjab waiting for the first installment of the help promised by the Punjab government. But instead of providing them with a roof the Punjab chief minister was misappropriating huge funds in a fake housing scheme.

The PML-Q leader announced that unlike the permanently shut gates of 90 Shahrah-e-Quaid-e-Azam, Lahore, the people would not be disappointed at the Lahore State Guest House. He said references against the Punjab government’s spurious schemes would be filed.