Cowasjee Articles

' Sitting Ducks '

13 October 1995

THOUGH relatively less proficient in scam-rigging, the members of the loyal opposition in our honourable National Assembly sniffed out a scam — the proposed New City to be built east of Islamabad on the right bank of the River Soan.

They asked questions in the House and succeeded in forcing the "Higher- Ups" (HUs) of our government to hand around a sheet of paper giving ‘facts’ on the project, aptly headed "We believe in transparency." The transparency was immediately suspect.

"The project is being undertaken by large well-reputed multinationals on a turn-key basis..." is one stated fact.

The "well-reputed multinationals" listed are MG Hertz (Pvt) Ltd and MG Realtors (Pvt) Ltd, both registered in Pakistan, with an authorised capital of Rs 100 million each, and SYNTEX International which is registered in Singapore and also has an office in London.

"The contract stipulates that the land has already been acquired... 50 per cent of Islamabad New City has been earmarked for the lower income group, 30 per cent is for those who fall in the middle income group, and only 20 per cent will be for those who have a large income."

"All financial and regulatory control lies with the CDA and NHA... No institution in Pakistan has made any investment by force or otherwise in Islamabad New City... It took over 30 months of negotiation to finalise the joint-venture company. No short-cuts were adopted."

The ‘joint-venture company’ has not been named. Details of ‘MG (Morris Garage?) Hertz (Car Rentals?) or the other ‘MG’ are not available. Obtaining details of companies registered in well governed countries is not difficult.

SYNTEX International was registered in Singapore as a "Limited Exempt Private Company" on August 6, 1994, (14 months ago). The registered office address is 74 Janan Benaan Kapal, Singapore 399653. The principal activity of the company is declared to be "Consultant Engineering Services". The authorised capital is one million Singapore dollars, the issued ordinary capital is two Singapore dollars (yes, two) and the paid-up ordinary capital is also two Singapore dollars (two again). The only two shareholders of the company are the directors, each being the proud possessor of a one-dollar share. These lucky gentlemen are Patrick Anthoy Finn, British passport holder (No.L 004329), of The Old Hall, Battersby, Great Ayton, North Yorkshire, England, and Yap Lim Chong Jimmy, Singapore passport holder (S11112054591), of 139 Lorong Ah Soo, #08-193, Singapore 1953.

No AGM has been held. The names of the auditors and bankers are not available. The London office address is not known. No bank in Singapore or England is in a position to give any reference concerning this ‘paper’ company or its directors.

The front page of Dawn on October 10 carried an advertisement inserted through "The Agency" by the National Housing Authority, Islamabad, and the "Authorised Sales Agent: Syed Mohammed Idrees, Modern Shelter International, 3 Kamran Apartments, 79 Ferozepur Road, Lahore", who has a Karachi office, telephone numbers 5890731, 540561, 5888278. These telephones are located in a one-room estate agency, Syed International, in the Defence Society, which doubles as an Agfa film pick-up point.

A very polite gentleman at Syed International, in exchange for Rs 150, gave me a brochure and a plot application form to be filed with the first instalment by October 15. The master plan has not yet been prepared. He did not know whether the advertised 10,000 acres of land had been acquired or not, or how many plots were to be carved out for the people, the sitting ducks.

The brochure bears the crests of the GOP, CDA, and NHA, and apart from the usual bumph, and the sentence "A reasonable space is left aside for a graveyard", tells you the discounted pre- ballot prices of the plots:

250 sq yds Rs 330,000; 500, Rs 660,000; 1,000, Rs 2,400,000; 2500, Rs 3,000,000; and 3000, Rs 3,600,000. 25 per cent is to be paid to the NHA with the application; 25 on or before one year from the date of application; 15 on or before 18 months, and 10 on delivery of possession (when?).

The form requires the applicant to sign various undertakings as to how and where one pays, and what extras one will have to pay if one does not pay in time, but nowhere does it tell one how, when and what will be refunded by whom, if for any reason, good or bad, the project does not take off or deliver. Jim and Pat of SYNTEX, if found, will only be able to dole out to the sitting ducks the lordly sum of two Singapore dollars.

During the time I was at the estate agency the telephone did not stop ringing, and there was a steady stream of people, obviously retired officers of the government and the armed forces, none of whom looked at all flush with money, but who had faith in what the NHA and the CDA were selling them.

Could this be another grand scam perpetrated by our HUs? We cannot prevent the government from advertising on their television channel. But should our newspaper editors not have the project examined, the shortcomings and loopholes assessed, lead the people, and then decide whether to carry the advertisements? This duty, every responsible newspaper owes to its readers.

I vividly recall the full-page advertisements of the many Samad Scams, enticing sitting ducks to ‘invest’, and later reading the woes of the thousands of poor people who lost their life’s savings. Sermonising editorials printed, after all is over, provide no succour. This must not happen again.

The solvency and the viability of the CDA and the NHA, both headed by recently appointed favourites, is not greater than that of the monstrous ever-looted, ever-losing KDA operating under the direct control of provincial minister Pir Mazarul Haque who is encouraged by Chief Minister Abdullah Shah who in turn blindly obeys our HUs. How could the KDA possibly remain solvent? It is BROKE. It cannot meet its liabilities. Salaries for the month of August were paid to the lower staff on September 11, and to officers on September 20. So far, no one has been paid for September.

Take the KDA commercial complex on the Sharea Faisal (opposite the turning to Fatima Jinnah Road), built with its funds with the express purpose of generating income for the Authority. Before any areas could be let out, the Government of Sindh (GOS), also BROKE, stepped in and ordered the KDA to sell the complex to the EOBI (Employees Old-age Benefit Institution, the government- managed peoples’ pension fund) at the arbitrarily fixed price of Rs 200 million (20 crores). In May 1994, the EOBI paid Rs 100 million to the KDA without taking possession of the complex, and the GOS immediately had this sum transferred to its own coffers.

Then, some time during the second half of 1994, whilst the EOBI was still clamouring for possession of the complex, In stepped Grand Mandarin Salman Faruqui, provider of the needs, fulfiller of the desires, of all our HUs. He took over the complex for his much-publicised Civic Centre Company (CCC), formed with capital extorted from the utility companies (Sui Gas, KESC, WAPDA, PTC, etc). The complex is to house a centre to which the harried people of Greater Karachi will have to travel, twice or thrice a month, from as far way as outer Orangi, to pay their utility bills. The centre has yet to be opened with the usual razzmatazz, our chief stone-layer tape-cutter being far too occupied to find time.

The KDA has assessed the worth of its complex at Rs 250 million and is now seeking Faruqui’s help to get this money. Faruqui is being difficult because the KDA is not waiving its NUF (non-utilisation fees) amounting to Rs 28 lakhs, which landlord Faruqui owes in respect of his plot (F-16, Block 5, Kekhashan 5, opposite the Boat Basin) acquired, along with other plots, when he was provincial secretary of housing and town planning in the Nizami era.

The frightened DG, KDA, cannot justify the waiver and has lobbed the ball onto the court of the governing body of the KDA chaired by Commissioner of Karachi Zia-ul-Islam, where it now lies.

The KDA is left to claim its Rs 250 million from ‘whoever’. The EOBI is reclaiming from ‘whoever’, what it has paid, plus interest — a total of Rs 127 million of the people’s money of which it was deprived. The ‘whoever’ is not concerned. There is no government.

The shenanigans do not end here. The KDA had reserved the 10,000 sq yd commercial plot adjacent to the complex as a parking lot. They say they were pressured by Hakim Ali to sell it to a friend for Rs 25 million, the market price then being 250 million. Honest Hakim, affectionately known as ‘Honhak’, could never have done it. After all, was he not the chairman of the Public Accounts Committee in BB’s first Assembly? Now the CCC is after the parking lot, which the friendly possessor, Summer Resorts, may sell at the market price of Rs 350 million!

Sitting ducks?

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