PESHAWAR: An attempt by a special assistant to chief minister and MPA from Shangla to maneuver the relocation of a proposed playground to his own village and then jack-up the value of the land through sale of land amongst his own kith and kin has prompted the authorities to intervene and nip a scam in its bud, documents available with Dawn reveal.

According to the documents, the provincial government had sanctioned construction of a playground in Puran, Shangla in August 2013. The district sports officer along with the district administration selected a site measuring 57-kanal and two marlas near Government Higher Secondary School for the playground.

On January 1, 2014, office of the collector Shangla district, imposed Section-4 to initiate a process of land acquisition inBengalai, Puran.

The situation took a bizarre turn.

Immediately afterwards, on February 27, 2014, seven mutations took place, all in Special Assistant to Chief Minister Haji Abdul Muneem`s Mouza Nim Kallay, Aluch and all the sale deeds were done amongst his two brothers and relatives, to jack up the average price of per kanal land to Rs15.9 million. Copies of the mutations are available with Dawn.

A week later, on March 4, 2014, the assistant commissioner in a letter to the deputy commissioner wrote that since the landowners in Puran were reluctant to make the transaction, `the local MPA suggested land in Mouza Nim Kallay for the relocation of playground.

Subsequently, Shangla deputy commissioner in his notification on March 17, 2014, noted: `The Director General, Sports and Youth Affairs, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Peshawar with the consultation of the concerned Member Provincial Assembly, PK88, Shingly-II, selected another suitable site/land for the said purpose and has requested ... for de-notification of notification under Section-4 already issued (Bengalay, Puran) and also request to approve and issue notification under Section4 for the new selected site (Nim Kallay)afresh.

The very next day, on March 18, 2014, a seemingly over-efficient, district collector through a notification imposed Section-4 for the acquisition of land measuring 70-kanal and one marla in Nim Kallay.

The speed with which sale deeds were undertaken at a value which many in the real estate business believe was outlandish, considering the fact that the cost of land per kanal was projected to be the same as that of a similar size plot in Peshawar`s Hayatabad, raised many eyebrows.

Malakand commissioner, sensing the situation, wrote a letter to Senior Member Board of Revenue to solicit his advice and he was advised that mutations for the jacked up value could be cancelled, a senior official said.

Haji Abdul Muneem was adamant that he had no axe to grind from the relocation of the playground to his native Nim Kallay, the withdrawal of Section-4 from Puran, its imposition in Nim Kallay and mutations in the name of his brothers and relatives.

`The playground in Puran could not be built because the poor landowners there were reluctant to sell their land. The land in Nim Kallay is expensive. It is more expensive than the land in Hayatabad,` he said.

`Because there is not much land leftthere. It is expensive but we will try and get it at a lower rate,` said Mr Muneem, who was elected as independent but later on joined Shahram Tarakai`s Awami Jamhoori Ittehad, Pakistan.

He acknowledged that the seven people, in whose name sale deeds were done, were his brothers and relatives but denied there was any foul play. However, he was adamant that he would not let the playground project go away at any cost.

Haji Muneem is also the chairman of district development advisory committee.

Shangla Deputy Commissioner Zafrul Islam said that he was aware of the issue.

The officer, who had issued notifications imposing and withdrawing Section-4, surprisingly, claimed to have raised the issue of impropriety himself.

`We have de-notified the area in Nim Kallay,` he claimed in his comments to Dawn, though some officials said they were not aware of the development.

Said Ghaffar, Jamaat-i-Islami leader from Shangla, demanded inquiry into the way the whole scheme was manipulated. `This was an attempt to defraud the provincial exchequer,` he alleged in his comments to Dawn.

`We all are for change. But is this the kind of change we were looking for,` Mr Ghaffar questioned.