ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Cabinet Secretariat on Tuesday recommended the establishment of an authority to manage real estate of the federal government underscoring the prudent utilisation of government’s real estate for generating optimum economic return.
The committee meeting, presided by its Chairman Malik Ibrar Ahmad at the Parliament House on Tuesday, unanimously recommended “The Federal Government Real Estate Management Authority Bill, 2026” without amendments for passage by the National Assembly.
During the course of the discussion, Ibrar Ahmad opined that various government properties personally known to him had been encroached upon. Quoting the instance of encroachment of Railway land, he said that he raised the issue in a meeting of the Standing Committee on Railways and the encroachers were evicted on the directions of the committee. He added these lands had gained in value over time due to expansion of urban areas and growth of commercial activities, however, most of government entities had not been able to manage the real estate optimally. He supported the establishment of the Authority.
The secretary Cabinet Division told the committee that the federal government owned a vast tract of commercial urban and rural immovable property throughout the length and breadth of the country, including land and structures built thereon were owned, operated and managed by the federal ministries, divisions and organisations under their control, however, despite government directions, most of the government properties were not being utilised in an economically viable manner and were also subjected to encroachment.
He further said that these properties had been overwhelmed with multiple problems like encroachments, illegal occupation, etc., adding several attempts in the past had been made to make use of some of the properties for generating optimum economic returns, and nevertheless they went in vain. He said that managing real estate, especially land, was a specialised function and none of the existing government organisations had the exclusive mandate and capacity to perform this function in a manner where these properties generate valuable returns for the economy.
The Cabinet Division secretary said that such functions were required to be performed by a dedicated professional agency/organisation and added that the proposed new organisation namely Federal Government Real Estate Management Authority would be established to own, mange or lease properties of the federal government as approved by the federal government.
The committee also discussed and recommended “The Archival Material (Preservation and Export Control) (Amendment) Bill, 2026” with an amendment in section 2(a) of the replacing words “Secretary of the concerned Division” with the words “The Prime Minister”. The committee was of the view that the authority to constitute advisory committee for deciding the course of action adopted for preservation of archival material should rest with the Prime Minister.
The committee unanimously recommended the Abandoned Properties (Management) (Amendment) Bill, 2026 and the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Amendment) Bill, 2026 without amendments for passage by the Assembly. The Cabinet Division secretary informed the committee about the objects and reasons of the aforementioned bills. He said that the amendments had been moved in the substantiative laws to align them with a view to streamlining governance, improving administrative efficiency, and ensuring that the Federal Cabinet focuses on matters of national policy and strategic importance.
He said that the Cabinet Division, in pursuance of the direction of the Federal Cabinet, had undertaken a comprehensive review of relevant laws and had prepared the amendment bills to rationalise and reassign such powers to the appropriate authorities. He also informed the committee that Federal Cabinet had decided this in consequence to the judgment of the Supreme Court in the Mustafa Impex case.
