ISLAMABAD: If the police of an area advertise that a criminal has arrived in the area and does nothing to arrest them, will this desist the police’s primary obligation of service?

This question was posed to the Capital Development Authority (CDA) by the Auditor General of Pakistan (AGP) as a taunt for turning a blind eye to the mushroom growth of illegal housing societies.

Instead of taking decisive action, the civic agency frequently issues warning notices to keep the general public aware.

Laid in the National Assembly on Monday, the special audit report 2016-17 on the Housing Societies Directorate says that CDA suffered Rs5,217.39 billion in losses due to 109 illegal housing schemes.

“If the authority is not capable to regulate private housing schemes and to generate revenue but to becoming safe [haven] for land encroachers and land mafia then either authority’s staff and offices in use be brought to minimum level or the authority may change its master plan and accept the actual bitter ground realities as CDA has no hold and powers to implements its rules,” the audit report says.

Says if it can’t enforce rules, CDA should define a new territory where it can implement its rules

It suggested that if it cannot enforce its rules, CDA should define a new territory in Islamabad where it can act as an authority and implement its rules and regulations.

The report says management has not taken action against the 109 illegal housing schemes. There may also be more illegal housing schemes which are yet to be identified by CDA.

The report says it is “astonishing” that there are four schemes in Zone-III, Margalla Hills National Park.

“In the last 25 years, only 19 [no-objection certificates] were issued and 24 layout plan for housing schemes were approved by CDA for Zone 2, 4 and 5,” it says.

The document says the total area of these zones is 1,352,360 kanals whereas the NOC was obtained by the housing schemes for only 91,611 kanals which means 93.2pc was illegal.

It says losses were incurred due to this in various shapes including the non-imposition of penalties and fees.

It says the unapproved area in these zones is being encroached on and that the encroachers are selling plots in the name of various illegal schemes.

It says 99pc of these illegal schemes have not been started and have “looted” public money or have poor sanitation and environment to offer its residents.

The report says that in 98pc of approved and illegal societies, there are no sewerage treatment plants, which is a requirement under Islamabad Capital Territory Zoning Regulations 1992.

Many apartment buildings in approved housing schemes have been constructed 15 storeys high without any check, the audit says.

Environmental impact of E-11 housing societies

The report says the CDA had issued two NOCs and three layout plans for housing societies in E-11 i.e. Multi Professional Housing Society, National Police Foundation, Medical Housing Society, Services Cooperative Housing Society and Federal Government Employers Cooperative Housing Society.

It says these housing schemes did not comply with the approved layout plans and not one has a sewerage treatment plant.

It says there were also issues of encroachment on natural streams in these societies which leaves the general public in danger during rains.

“Even contempt of Lahore High Court Rawalpindi Bench was also filed but CDA failed to do anything yet,” it says.

The report says the CDA management should have considered cancelling the NOCs of two housing societies and sold the mortgaged land to develop a nullah and treatment plant as per the layout plan.

CDA management was also required to take action against those responsible for not cancelling the layout plans within 45 days when three E-11 societies failed to mortgage land with the civic agency and did not transfer open spaces, parks and graveyards to the CDA.

It says the civic agency only cancelled the layout plans when all the plots were sold by the owners of the societies.

Loss to general public

The report says the CDA has passed 19 NOCs between 1993 and 2013 for the development of housing schemes. However, not one of them was completed on time and not one completion certificate was issued the last 25 years.

The authority did not penalise operators for changing layout plans nor did it take over the scheme if they were not completed on time and after the expiry of the extended period of completion through the sale of land mortgaged with CDA.

The public has suffered due to this and are living in congested spaced due to layout plan violations or have lost hard-earned money.

Undue favour to three societies

CDA issued layout plans and NOCs to three societies without getting a 30pc mortgage deed for saleable area. These include Services Cooperative Society, Park View City Housing Scheme and Intelligence Bureau Employees Cooperative Housing Society.

The audit says CDA used delaying tactics for not getting the mortgage area by accepting revised layout plans without the required formalities completed.

“In this way sponsors got reasonable time to show approved layout plans of CDA to general public for sale of plots,” the report says and that because of this practice, CDA suffered a loss of Rs15 billion.

Tele Town fraud cases

The audit says that when there is no ownership of land with a company, CDA is not supposed to pass preliminary scrutiny clearance but it did so in 2004.

It says the land mafia used CDA’s letter for threatening people in a village in Zone-V for purchasing land and selling open plot files from 2004, which are still available online for sale without an NOC and approved layout plan.

After issuing the letter in 2004, the authority took no action against the owners of Tele Town Society and sale and purchase continued till 2016.

Published in Dawn, February 26th, 2019