An apropos report published states that the Capital Development Authority has suggested for the regularization of Grand Hyatt scam. This has become a norm in this country where powerful paid public office holders indulge in gross irregularities, often in collaboration with ruling elite, (civil and uniformed). Then, in case the matter becomes a subject of public scrutiny or judicial intervention - it is put in cold storage and after passage of time, the Law of Necessity comes into play. If former elected PM can be punished for abuse of power and assets beyond declared sources of income, why not paid public office holders?

The former Chairman CDA and other involved senior bureaucrats of this statutory Development Authority, who are beneficiaries of multiple allotments of plots in nexus with powerful collaborators in corridors of power, continue to benefit from fruits of irregularities committed by them at the cost of tax payer. This is an institutionalized abuse of power under the garb of welfare, where housing societies for paid state employees have become a tool for commercial profiteering.

Welfare of common man is no longer a priority. In model welfare countries like Norway or Denmark, the State offers subsidized housing (or plots of land) to serve as single owned residence. The abuse that takes place in Pakistan is only practiced in Third World Countries, where there is no rule of law, nor any security of life and private property. Unfortunately in Pakistan today, Land Mafia Dons are more powerful than the State as defined in our constitution.

This curse and cancer has assumed status of Frankenstein penetrating every state funded institution. In 1989 CDA Islamabad offered plots to general public through balloting in Sector E12/4 and beneficiaries still await possession. Similar is fate of DHA Valley allotted individuals in Islamabad and numerous other housing societies in federal capital and other parts of Pakistan.

MALIK TARIQ,

Lahore, January 26.