LAHORE    -   Senior Provincial Minister Mian Aslam Iqbal has said that it has been decided to take strict action against illegal housing societies across the province. Addressing a press con­ference, he said: “The land grabbers mafia has become so strong that law enforcement agencies seem help­less in front of them. The poor man sells everything of his own and buys a plot in these illegal societies but later he finds out that he has been deceived. Therefore, it has been de­cided to take strict action against illegal housing societies throughout Punjab.” The senior minister said the owner of an illegal housing so­ciety (Aleem Khan) submitted an application in 2012 for expansion of River Edge Housing Scheme but the LDA rejected the application as it was on agricultural land. 

The secretary housing also dis­missed the appeal as it was a green area as per Master Plan 2004 where no building was constructed but then they went to court and got a stay order and continued to carry out development work in this ille­gal residential scheme. He said LDA sent them 17 notices from 2010 to 2022 but they did not stop develop­ment work on this illegal land. “The accused committed a fraud of 50 billion rupees with the poor people and five cases are regis­tered against him. LDA has made it clear several times that constructions can be done only on 765 kanals of land in the said housing scheme. When­ever the institutions took action against ille­gal constructions, they were threatened with violence. Four days ago, when 55 kanals of gov­ernment land was retrieved, the relevant revenue officer, police and the RUDA employees were tortured. This is the mafia that built people’s houses in the river belt. Even gov­ernment land was sold.” “Aleem Khan thought that the PTI could not be run without him. This is the person who made Maryam Nawaz’s social media cell for character as­sassination. Aleem Khan Sahib, you can choose any constituency of La­hore and l am ready to contest elec­tion against you. I will not let you steal the poor man’s money; I am the soldier of Imran Khan, I will not let his truth and narrative be hurt. People still haven’t forgotten the EOBI scandal in which the poor laborers were cheated. I am from the people and will always stand with the weak people,” he added. Mean­while, reacting strongly in response to the press conference of Punjab Minister Mian Aslam Iqbal, CEO of Park View City Shoaib Siddiqui has said that the Pun­jab government had proved to be vindictive and committed heinous crimes which had no justification. He added that government was not clear as yet as to whether this mat­ter of the housing society was un­der the jurisdiction of Ravi Urban Development .Authority (RUDA) or the LDA because Park View City was served first notice on Septem­ber 1 while RUDA also sent a letter on September 14 on the same is­sue. He pointed out that Park View City has already got a stay by the court after which the action taken by RUDA was a clear violation of the court orders. He clarified that the society was taken over in 2010 from the River Edge administration which was having all NOCs includ­ing LDA and in 2012 its extension was applied to LDA as per rules and regulations. Moreover, all the new blocks were extended in the society as per law. Siddiqui reiterated that the administration stands with the resident members of the Park View Society and investors and their all rights will be fully protected. To a question, Shoaib Siddiqui said that until recently Abdul Aleem Khan was acceptable when he was spend­ing on the PTI and was bringing par­liamentarians in his plane for Imran Khan. He expressed determination that apart from all these activities of the provincial government, the administration of Park View society fully stands with the sale partners and society residents for which they will protect their each and ev­ery penny spent over there.