PESHAWAR: The police have registered cases against 119 private housing societies in the provincial capital for functioning without the mandatory approval of the Peshawar Development Authority.

On Jan 27, the deputy commissioner of Peshawar had imposed a ban on all sorts of land transfers, mutations and registries in 181 unregistered and illegal housing societies until they obtain a valid NOC from a competent forum.

Of those societies functioning in the provincial capital, 123 are in the limits of Shah Alam tehsil, 25 in city tehsil, 24 in Saddar tehsil and nine in Mattani tehsil.

A spokesman for the City Police said FIRs had been registered against illegal housing societies under Section 35 of the PDA Act, 2017, on the formal complaint of the civic agency.

Section 35 of the PDA Act, 2017, says, “whoever, develops a scheme or society within the authority areas, without prior written approval of the Authority or contravenes the provision of this Act, rules and regulations, shall be liable to imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years or a fine which may extend to Rs5 million or with both.”

Action comes over their failure to meet legal requirements

The spokesman said the PDA had begun a crackdown on illegal housing societies in the provincial capital and was collecting data following the registration of cases against 119 private societies.

He said three FIRs had been registered against the housing societies falling in the limits of Sarband police station, six in Mathra, 14 in Michni Gate, eight in Khazana, nine in Duadzai, three in Chamkani, two in Mattani and one each in Shahpur and Nasirbagh.

The spokesman said the police were collecting data against other illegal schemes for registration of cases against them.

PDA director general Syed Zafar Ali Shah told Dawn that the civic agency had asked the police to register cases against illegal housing societies over failure to respond to multiple notices issued by the authority to meet legal requirements.

He said besides lacking the mandatory approval of the civic agency, the illegal housing societies were also not providing facilities, including greenbelt, playing areas, land for schools, mosques and other basic amenities.

Mr Shah said in case of a colony spread over 160 kanals of land, the developer had to seek the PDA’s approval for its development, while if the area was less the 160 kanals of land, the relevant tehsil municipal administration would issue the no objection certificate (NOC).

He said the agency had begun action against illegal housing societies and on its complaint, the deputy commissioner of Peshawar banned 181 of them.

The PDA chief said the police had registered FIR against most of those illegal housing societies, while the registration of cases against around 40 others was in progress.

The PDA Private Housing Scheme Regulations, 2019, says all private housing societies will provide proper land for housing schemes along with all basic facilities, including sanitation, drinking water, natural gas, electricity, proper roads and public parks.

According to them, the development of a housing scheme requires an area of the minimum 100 kanals, while the width of access road should not be less than 30 feet.

In addition, the developers are required to left seven per cent open space or parks of the total land acquired for the development of the housing scheme, two per cent for graveyard, five per cent for commercial area and five per cent for public buildings.

The PDA had also fixed the maximum size of residential plot at 10,890 square feet (two kanals) and the minimum size of residential plot at 816.75 square feet (three marlas) with internal roads with the minimum 30 feet right of way and a 10-marla plot for solid waste management.

Published in Dawn, February 5th, 2021