Umno Pahang has been logging on a vast plot of land - approximately 40 sq km in size - which technically still belongs to the state government, a state official said today.

Contacted by malaysiakin i this morning, Pekan district land office head Zainal Rahim Darus confirmed that the land in question is "state land as it has yet to be alienated to Umno Pahang".

However, Zainal refused to directly confirm that Umno Pahang has failed to meet an ultimatum notice served by his office which requested the party to clear a total of RM4.8 million land premium by July 3 after four rare extensions were given.

All Zainal would say is that "yet to be alienated" means that "the owner has failed to pay the land premium".

'Let MB respond'

Zainal also declined to comment whether Umno Pahang - which had appointed logging companies to log on the 10,000-acre land - have cleared the area of its timber resources.

"This falls under the jurisdiction of the state government. I shouldn't comment before the menteri besar responds on it," Zainal explained.

The legitimacy for Umno Pahang to log on the land is in question since the land was never owned by the party as it has repeatedly failed to pay the multi-million ringgit premium.

The plot of land is located at Nenasi, about 100km south of Kuantan, and falls under the Pekan district.

Industry experts conservatively estimated that the logging proceeds from this concession is worth tens of million.

Malaysiakini

earlier this week reported that the Pahang government led by the state Umno chief - then Khalil Yaakob - had awarded a lucrative logging concession to Umno Pahang five years ago.

However, to make the deal aboveboard, the party was required to pay RM4.8 million of land premium to the district land office so that Umno Pahang can begin clearing the land, ostensibly for palm oil plantation.

The state government can alienate state land to private land - or gazette it as either a permanent forest estate (where limited logging is permitted) or permanent forest reserve - if approval is given by the state executive council.

The controversial approval for Umno Pahang to own the 10,000-acre state land was recorded in the council's meeting minutes on Jan 7, 1998.

However, the ruling party has repeatedly failed to clear the land premium despite given four unusual extensions - including two appeals from Umno Pahang - since June 2000.

'Final warning'

The district land office in Pekan had issued a 'final warning' in January this year and stated that the ownership of the land, as well as the lucrative logging concession would be revoked if Umno Pahang is unable to meet the payment by July 3.

But industry experts told malaysiakini that the annulment of Umno Pahang's land would come too late for the plot would have been stripped of logs.

This concession is also believed to be a tip of the iceberg of total logging concessions granted by the state to Umno Pahang as a mean to raise funds for the ruling party.

Khalil, during his tenure as the Pahang menteri besar, has been accused of alleged discrepancies in the awards of timber concessions.

In a police report lodged in 2001, Umno's state representative Fauzi Abdul Rahman alleged that Khalil, who is also information minister, had permitted areas larger than what was permitted under the national forestry policy to be harvested.

An Umno internal inquiry on Khalil, launched three years ago, has yet to complete its investigation.

Adnan Yaakob, who took office from Khalil in May 1999, was quoted in news reports yesterday that he was in the dark over the deal since the land was approved by his predecessor to Umno Pahang.