Auqaf to auction off 38,000 acres

LAHORE, April 14: The Auqaf and Religious affairs department has started working on auctioning of its 38,000 acres of agriculture land on one year lease. An official source told Dawn on Thursday that the department had directed all zonal and district managers of the province to start auctioning the land in all districts and tehsil headquarters under the prescribed rules and policy. He said the department had at least 12,000 acres of the total 38,000 acres of agriculture land in the Bahawalpur region alone and rest of the land was in Multan, Dera Ghazi Khan, Lahore, Faisalabad, Sargodha, Rawalpindi and Gujranwala regions. He said the department was expected to get revenue of over Rs200 million after auctioning of the land. He said the department would monitor auctions with the help of officials of the provincial Auqaf headquarters. "The department`s secretary has directed the officials concerned to hold auctions in a transparent manner with an objective to lease out the land at suitable prices," the source added.