ISLAMABAD: More than 30 kanals of land in Shehzad Town, a suburb residential locality of the federal capital Islamabad, owned by the Federal Directorate of Education (FDE), worth more than Rs 1 billion, has been illegally occupied by an influential land mafia.
The land is owned by the FDE and is meant for the construction of a Model College in this area but unfortunately this precious land has been occupied by powerful land grabbers and the concerned authorities are least bothered to take back the possession of the land.
According to sources in the FDE, a complete plan for the construction of a Model College had been under consideration for the last several years but due to the illegal occupation of the land, it had not yet been possible for the concerned authorities to implement it.
While visiting this site, it was learnt that half of the land is being used for growing vegetables and the rest is being used for bringing up milch animals, an illegal practice according to the rules and regulations of the Capital Development Authority (CDA).
The land has been in the use of this influential land mafia for the last several years. They have constructed animal sheds and homes for their accommodation. The land that is being used for harvesting of vegetables has been properly irrigated through turbines installed there.
There are a number of kiosks on this land and a number of people are residing near this land and have constructed sheds for parking of their vehicles.
The people residing in this area have serious reservations about the occupation of this land by the mafia and have demanded of concerned authorities of the FDE to take control of the land and initiate the project of Model College according to the plan and feasibility. The inhabitants also said when this land was being occupied, they intimated the FDE who assured them that these were personnel of the department and were working according to the plan of the Model College.
Muhammad Javed, a resident of the area, said he also filed an application with the concerned authorities regarding the status of this land but they never bothered to provide him a justification about its possession.
This correspondent contacted Waqar Ashraf, Director Planning and Development, Federal Directorate of Education, who said, “We are trying to take back the possession of this land from this influential land mafia and negotiating with the Capital Development Authority (CDA) to help us in this regard.” He said that it would be an uphill task to get back the land. He also admitted that they had received complaints from the residents when it was being occupied. However, he rejected the statement being attributed to some officials that the occupiers were personnel of the Directorate. The News 
