FAISALABAD: A housing scheme, though not approved by the Faisalabad Development Authority (FDA), has lured the public into deals.

On Jan 5, a case was registered with Civil Lines police against Malik Aamir, owner of the Citi Housing Scheme - a private venture - and property dealer Azhar Husain for selling registration forms (of plots) and advertising the scheme illegally.

Police have yet to make any arrest while the FDA and district government have not pursued the case.

PML-N MNA Dr Nisar Jutt says he will bring the issue into the notice of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif so that private and government officials face the action.

He does not know when the prime minister will give him a personal hearing. Meanwhile, the trade of plots is on in some shops at Iqbal Stadium.

Dawn learned five to eight property dealers - some of them from Lahore - have set up their offices at the stadium selling forms. Some PML-N leaders are stated to be engaged in the business.

A plain cream colour form, carrying the name of the housing scheme, has no details of the plots to be allotted to the buyer. The buyers are to furnish their particulars in the form, pay in cash and keep the forms with them till the launch of the scheme.

The buyers cannot claim their money if the registration form is lost.

Salman Ahmed, a buyer of the form, told Dawn the form buyers had been promised an incentive of hundreds of thousands of rupees when the scheme would be launched.

He said the price of form fluctuated daily as it was being sold from Rs250,000 to 265,000 against its stated price of Rs50,000.

Irfan Majeed, a lawyer, failed to buy the form when he visited the office on Wednesday. He said he was told that forms had been sold.

“While I was leaving the office, a man approached me and offered a form for Rs300,000,” he said.

Though police registered the first case against Citi Housing Scheme owner Malik Aamir on Dec 19, 2013, the trade of plots is going on. The district government had got registered the case for selling forms of the scheme without the approval of the FDA.

The police closed the case file tagging it ‘untraced’.

Wajid Hassan, FDA town planning director, was the complainant.

A second case was registered with the same police station.

This time, Ijaz Latif, FDA deputy director of town planning, was the applicant.

Mr Latif said the scheme was being advertised on local cable channels; the FDA probed the issue and did not find any site where the scheme would be established.

This correspondent has seen a letter by the FDA which establishes the scheme has yet to be approved.

The scheme officials had submitted an application to the CDA for the approval of the scheme.

The FDA replied with a letter titled “Preliminary planning permission for housing scheme named Citi Housing Chak no 4-JB, 5-JB and 118-JB” on February 9.

The letter reads: “The subject cited scheme comprising an area of 3300 kanal situated at Chak No. 4-JB, 5-JB and 118-JB Faisalabad has been scrutinised in the light of Punjab Private Housing Schemes and Land Sub-Division Rules 2010 and the preliminary planning permissions issued subject to the following:

That the scheme shall be submitted for approval in accordance with rules ibid to FDA, Faisalabad with the condition that total scheme area shall be without any encumbrance.

The planning permission shall be valid for six months from the date of issuance.

It shall not be a permission to carry out any construction activities at the proposed site.

It is not permission for marketing of plots/publicity of the scheme.

Furnish bank guarantee equivalent to the cost of appropriate RO Plant/s to be installed in the scheme.

The layout plan of the scheme shall be in conformity with the Peri Urban plan land uses/access.”

FDA Additional Director General Yaqoob Khan, when contacted, told Dawn the scheme had been approved.

He could not produce any document to prove his stance.

Maqbool Ahmed, FDA deputy director of town planning, said the scheme had been given preliminary planning permission but the sale of forms and advertisement was illegal.

A district government officer, seeking anonymity, said they were helpless because of political pressure.

Majid, an official of the Citi Housing scheme, told Dawn police cases did not matter as “we have permission and NOC for sale and purchase of forms and plots”. He also failed to produce the permission letter or the NOC.

When told that FDA officials had denied any such permission, he insisted on knowing about the official who refuted his claim.

Published in Dawn, March 5th, 2015

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