Musharraf era's multi-billion rupee military land scandal to be re-opened - India News and Travel Times Provides India-centric and other News and Features

The Pakistan National Assembly's Public Accounts Committee (PAC) is set to reopen the multi-billion rupee military land scam, which is being described as the mother of all scams in the country. The re-opening of the case regarding the 'misuse' of military land worth billions of rupees, which was overlooked by former President General Pervez Musharraf, is likely to add to the prevalent chaos in the country and increase Musharraf's trouble. "We have asked military authorities to revisit their laws regarding use of A-Land or demolish all commercial entities set up on the military lands. We have asked them to demolish commercial plazas and marriage halls constructed on A-Lands illegally," said Yasmin Rehman, a member of the PAC. Documents related to the abovementioned land shows that the military authorities sold or leased out state land worth billions of rupees for commercial purposes since 1937 despite the fact that the land was purely meant for departmental use, The Dawn reports. Despite knowing that it was illegal to lease out the military land, the caretaker government during Musharraf's regime, in March 2008, approved a policy submitted by the Ministry of Defence on the 'use of A-1 land for commercial and welfare activities by the three Services and Canteen Stores Department". "All activities (use of military land) undertaken so far on A-1 land shall be governed by the new policy with immediate effect. The rent shall be fixed for the current financial year and accounted for in the light of the above policy. As one-time measures, deposit of rent, etc, before the implementation of this policy is condoned and all such activities undertaken so far stand regularised as fait accompli cases," the documents said. When asked about the issue, Rehman said the PAC would soon convene a meeting and recommend action against all those who had supported and benefited by the misuse of the military land. She said the military officials had given a briefing to the PAC a few months ago but failed to satisfy it over the issue.