The late Choudhry Abdul Haq Virk served in the federal government in 1967. He was allotted two plots of land of 500 sq yd each in Islamabad.

In those days, no buyers were interested in the newly developed capital and the then government of General Ayub Khan had made residential plots  mandatory for all serving employees of the federal government for which they paid from their monthly salaries.

With 10 children to feed, the allotment was nothing short of a disaster for Mr Virk. “Only after a few months of payments from his meager salary, my father decided to get rid of these plots,” said Mubarik Virk, narrating the story of his father.

“My father had to ask his seniors to help convince the capital administration that he could not spare the money,” Mr Mubarak continued.

Eventually the cash-strapped father managed to get the plots cancelled - a feat his colleagues could not follow.

But had the family kept the plots, they would have had assets worth millions.

The story is a familiar one and most of Islamabad’s old residents-cum-civil servants have similar stories to tell of how they were forced tobuy a piece of land in the 1960s.

By now land in Islamabad is a luxury afforded only by the hyper rich.

This transformation of the city’s real estate market can be traced back to the end 80s when the state stopped keeping up with the housin g demand. (See CDA’s plans to nowhere) The demand increased exponentially in the 90s when Islamabad became an attractive destination for Pakistanis working abroad.

The vacuum that was created was filled by private housing societies that promised cheap and affordable housing.

Chad Haines, an anthropologist, who has researched Islamabad’s development, says “The first real boom of development in Islamabad beyond the control of CDA actually started in the 1990s. There was extensive money coming back to Pakistan from [those] who had migrated to the Gulf region. In the 1990s they could not buy property in Dubai or Saudi Arabia so they invested in Pakistan. At the time, there was extensive violence in Karachi. Islamabad was imagined as a city that had possibilities of lifestyle similar to places like Dubai -  safe, quiet, and predominately middle- to upper middle class.”

He adds that this injection of money led to a different form of land development — besides CDA. “It is out of this situation that informally housing societies began to emerge.”

A second boom came with 9/11 when once again Pakistanis living abroad started to move back.

A second reason was also that the shortage of housing pushed prices so high that middle class people in the city needed cheaper options which the CDA just could not provide.

Land prices in CDA developed sectors run into millions and much of the middle class cannot afford this. Housing societies provide a cheaper alternative. Just to give a recent example — in CDA’s latest housing project, Park Enclave, 500 sq yd was advertised for Rs12 million.

Bahria Enclave, which was launched around the same time and in the same area, offered the same plot for half the price.

For a middle class, which was being introduced to the consumer and nuclear family lifestyle during the Musharraf years, only the housing societies offered something affordable — CDA was clearly not interested in catering to this section of society.

As an architect and a resident of Islamabad commented, “Most housing societies provided an impossible dream — cheap housing in Islamabad. But the dream was bought by desperate people.”

No wonder then that post 2000 is also when private housing societies such as Bahria Town and the Multi Professionals Housing Society became household names in the city.

Later on, due to ever-worsening security conditions in neighbouring KPK, and other urban centres of the country, others also started shifting to Islamabad, said a CDA official.

Talking to Dawn, a senior official of the Capital Development Authority (CDA), involved in its planning division, said until the mid-90s, real estate business involved genuine sellers and buyers. But after that, he said, it all went downhill. (See What is the land mafia?) The buying and selling of ghost plots merely on the basis of files started after 2000, he added.

Initially, Bahria Town introduced this concept of selling files of plots. “After 9/11, there was great interest in real estate which Bahria Town successfully exploited,” said Mr Anwar, a local property dealer, who has been in the business for decades.

Other new private housing schemes, also followed suit and trapped many innocent buyers in the process, he added.

In fact, the number of cases involving bogus housing societies in the court and those being investigated by the government all tend to date back to the post 9/11 period. Government officials too got involved. For instance, the National Assembly Employees Cooperative Housing Society (NAECHS), was set up by local administration officials and the NA officials and promised land to over 3,000 members. It was discovered during this government’s tenure that the society never had enough land to provide plots to all the members it took money from.

In other scams, societies sold more plots than they had land or if a housing society was developed, its plan was not adhered to — the green areas for instance were also turned into plots and sold. And all this while the local administration watched from the sidelines.

Indeed, the shady role played by the CDA in the mushrooming of housing societies cannot be ignored. It has allowed societies to violate laws and rules and exploit consumers. Some go so far as to say that the authority’s failure in developing its own sectors is also deliberate as it allows housing societies to flourish and profit.