ISLAMABAD: The Capital Development Authority (CDA) has decided to dole out as many as 6,500 plots to its employees at subsidised rates, its counsel informed the Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Wednesday.

CDA’s counsel Nazir Jawad shared the details before Justice Raja Inaam Ameen Minhas during the hearing of identical petitions lodged by a number of CDA employees seeking allotment of plots at subsidised rates.

CDA’s counsel Nazir Jawad informed the court about the decision of the civic agency’s board taken recently.

He stated, “The CDA is ready to allot plots to the petitioners in underdeveloped sectors, i.e. C-13, D-13, C-14, C-15, I-16, I-14, I-12, Park Enclave and Kuri Model Village, subject to acceptance of the offer by CBA [collective bargaining agent] and others.”

IHC allows civic body to commence process of allotment to petitioners

The CDA’s union, on the other hand, promptly accepted the offer and the judge directed the civic agency “to commence the process of allotment of plots to the petitioners and CBA”.

Interestingly, the members of the CDA Board of Directors are also beneficiaries and at present all of them are working on deputation and they may get bigger plots while other employees will be allotted comparatively small plots.

The CDA is governed by a board which consists of a chairman and various members. Of the more than 120 members that have served in the CDA since the agency’s inception, hardly 20 were regular CDA employees. It is said that only one regular CDA officer, Shafi Sehwani, has ever become the chairman of the civic agency in all these years.

CDA’s counsel Jawad, when contacted, said the court order would be applicable to all the CDA’s employees, including the members of its board.

According to some lawyers, the CDA stance seems not only contradictory to the government’s austerity drive but also negates the judgements of the superior courts, including one authored by Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb in 2023.

As per a recent auction, the CDA valued a plot measuring one kanal in Sector C-14 around Rs60 million. The abovementioned 6,500 plots are of different categories, ranging from 5 marlas to a kanal. According to an estimate these plots are likely worth over Rs1 trillion.

In 2023, the IHC ruled that allotment of plots to the CDA employees and selected categories on subsidised rates was contradictory to the constitutional provisions and directed the cash-strapped federal government to ensure the disposal of state land at competitive prices.

IHC Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb on a petition of a CDA employee Mohammad Iqbal seeking a subsidised plot in Sector D-12 had observed that “any criteria made by the CDA board which is not designed to achieve the best possible price for the plots in other sectors would be prima facie repugnant to Article 173 of the Constitution that empowered the government to acquire land as well as the law laid down by the superior courts.”

Section 49 of the Capital Development Authority Ordinance 1960 provides that the CDA may retain, or may lease, sell, exchange, rent or otherwise dispose of any land vested in it.

It is implied in the said provision that the sale or disposal of CDA’s land has to be at the best possible rates which can only be realised through an auction or a competitive bidding process.

To dispose of land at a rate even slightly lower than the market rate that can be realised for it in a transparent auction or a competitive bidding process would be prima facie not just irrational but detrimental to the state, the court observed.

The court order states, “Allotment of a plot worth millions of rupees is not part of the terms and conditions of service of any of the categories of employees/public functionaries mentioned in Regulation 5(1) of the 2005[CDA] Regulations. To provide them with a windfall in the form of the allotment of a plot at a rate which is not commensurate to the rate that can be realised for it in an open auction is a strain on the national exchequer...”

In 2013, IHC Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui ruled that those working on deputation in the CDA were not entitled to subsidised plots.

Later on, Justice Athar Minallah ruled against the distribution of plots at throwaway prices to the regular employees of the civic agency.

Published in Dawn, March 20th, 2025