Police Township: Many apartments in clutches of MoI officials

KABUL (Pajhwok): Residents of the Police Township in capital Kabul complain they could not be issued apartment ownership documents in 30 years and allege a number of retired and current Ministry of Interior (MoI) officials have usurped apartments in the residential scheme.

Syed Abdul Wahid Sabori, a retired lieutenant general and a representative of the township dwellers, said 30 years ago the then government had distributed 408 apartments in 11 blocks to the heirs of fallen policemen.

Sabori, who also heads the National Association of People with Disabilities, said the police township had been supervised 32 times for issuing “proof of ownership” to families living in the blocks, but the valuable documents were yet to be distributed.

“Many apartments of this township are usurped by a number of retired and current officials of the Ministry of Interior (MoI)”, he said without naming anyone.

“Whenever the MoI decides to issue proof of ownership to owners of the apartments, the grabbers prevent this process because they will lose the property,” he said.

Talking on behalf of other protestors, Sabori asked the government to issue ownership documents to actual owners of the apartments.

Abdul Majid, a resident of the township, who said he was the heir of a martyred policeman, said a number of current and retired police officers had occupied 110 apartments in the township and the same officers had blocked the issuance of proof of ownership to the actual owners.

Habiba, 45, the widow of a martyred police officer, said she had received an apartment in the township, but not any documents to claim ownership.

She also demanded the ownership documents from the government and said she would never give her apartment to someone else.

Brig. Gen. Fazal Karim Sadat, chief attorney at the MoI, also said officials who had grabbed apartments in the township were behind prevention of issuing the ownership documents to the families of the martyrs.

“Those whose interests are at risk are preventing this process, the residents of the township can task a delegation and I would support it to share the issue with the minister,” he said.

A MoI official, who wished to go unnamed, said the previous minister had formally shared the issue with the Cabinet. The Cabinet last year formed a mixed commission to assess the grabbing issue and share its report, but the commission did not share its findings with the Cabinet.

mds/ma

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