ISLAMABAD - Civil Aviation Authority has failed to recover a piece of land worth Rs 11 billion from the government of Sindh, audit has pointed out.
Available documents reveal that under the rules the CAA land policy provides that airport manager shall be responsible to ensure security and peaceful possession of CAA land.
Senior Estate Officer of concerned airport shall be responsible to coordinate with the local authorities of land revenue and complete the handing over of the land.
The audit noted during review of the monthly return for encroachment of Jinnah International Airport Karachi that 120 acres CAA land located in Deh Safooran under survey no. 171 was unlawfully encroached by government of Sindh and allocated to police department, Sindh. The audit further noted that the land was in possession of the police and houses had been constructed thereon.
The audit observed that CAA could not maintain peaceful possession in order to safeguard the CAA property, which constituted negligence on the part of the airport management. Failure of CAA to protect and safeguard its property resulted in encroachment and illegal allotment thereafter by the government of Sindh having value of Rs 11 billion.
The audit maintained that encroachment took place due to weak internal controls and inadequate oversight mechanism for enforcing relevant rules and regulations.
The audit pointed out the encroachment in October 2014. The Authority admitted the encroachment.
The matter was discussed in the Departmental Audit Committee (DAC) Meeting held on 14th January, 2015, wherein CAA because of non-cooperation by the Sidh Revenue department. Resultantly, the land was encroached upon by government if Sindh and further allotted to Sindh Police.
Audit contended that valuable land at Shahra-e-Faisal could not be safeguard due to negligence inefficiency of CAA. The committee directed the Authority to take action against the persons responsible for negligence, early retrieval and mutation of land in the name of CAA. The compliance of DA’s directive was not conveyed by the Authority till finalization of this report.