Pakistan Army to get 1,000 acres for new GHQ in Islamabad

Islamabad, Dec 27 (IANS) Pakistan's powerful Army would be shifting its General Headquarters from Rawalpindi to the capital city with the allotment of over 1,000 acres of land to it, a media report said.

Islamabad's Capital Development Authority (CDA) is to allot over 1,000 acres of land to the army for the construction of a general headquarters (GHQ) and other military offices in Islamabad, Dawn reported.

The army is keen to take possession of the land at the earliest in order to begin construction work and move the headquarters to the federal capital.

The army had to shelve its plan of moving the GHQ from Rawalpindi to Islamabad in 2008-09 due to financial constraints and on the instructions of the then army chief, Ashfaq Pervez Kiyani.

A high-level meeting was held at the CDA headquarters last week in which several key decisions regarding the handing over of land to the Army were taken.

CDA officials told the daily that issues regarding an office complex, which will be constructed on 138 acres, were discussed in detail.

A formal allotment letter has not been issued due to an outstanding annual ground rent of Rs 84 million. However, it was decided that the ground rent will be waived as it was the CDA's fault to not hand over possession of the land to the Army for the construction of offices, the agency official told the daily.

CDA Member Estate Khushal Khan said almost all the issues between the authority and the Army were resolved during the meeting and that the civic agency will be issuing allotment letters for the land soon.

He said the Army had been cooperating with the civic agency and also paid a large proportion of the amount for the land they will get from the CDA.

Also, the Defence Ministry sought information from the CDA regarding the demarcation of military grass farmland in the Margalla Hills. They said the military wanted a proper demarcation so they could get complete control of the land.