JOHOR BARU, July 6 — The Johor Baru parliamentary office said today it will look into alleged unfair practices by the previous Barisan Nasional (BN) administration for allocation of squatter houses in its constituency.

Johor Baru MP Akmal Nasrullah Mohd Nasir said he believed there was abuse of power in relation allocation of such homes to non-eligible residents.

"As the parliamentarian here, we will look into the allegations as it is serious and will deprive the rights of those who were eligible for such homes,” he said.

The 32-year-old federal lawmaker said this during the Johor Baru parliamentary-level Hari Raya Aidilfitri open house at SJKC Foon Yew 1 in Kebun Teh here today.

Akmal also revealed that there were cases of  not eligible individuals who were allocated more than one house.

"We will work with the authorities to look into these cases as some of them or even their family members are not squatters,” he said, adding that political party allocation for homes have also been stopped due to claims that it encourages unfair practices.

Akmal said other issues related to housing woes was those who received the flat units under the People's Public Housing Project were found to have rented their units to others including foreigners.

He said that being part of the ruling government, he will bring-up the issue and address the problems related to such housing woes with either at the state or federal levels.

At the same time, Akmal said he has also looked into several other issue relating to the state of cleanliness and also the RM4 billion Rapid Transit System project in Johor Baru.

"In the past two-months I have been busy engaging the residents and also community leaders who want change.

"For me, taking care of the Johor Baru area is a big shoe to fill. However, I will definitely try my best to look into how we can assist the residents,” he said.

The Johor Baru district has several issues and among those are urban squatter areas. Most have been relocated to affordable housing projects after the previous state government intervened and offered them home units in return.

The urban parliamentary constituency in south Johor is among the biggest and most densely populated in Peninsular Malaysia with more than 500,000 residents.