ISLAMABAD: The Central Police Office (CPO) has sought permission from the commissioner Capital Development Authority (CDA) to allow it to continue using a F-7/4 house till the completion of its own building at G-11.

A police officer told Dawn on Thursday that the deputy commissioner CDA had issued notice to the CPO to vacate the office set in the residential area within two weeks.

The deadline given by the CDA expired on January 7. In its request, the police told the commissioner that its building was under construction on the premises of the chief commissioner Islamabad complex at G-11 and till its completion the police may be allowed to use the house as the CPO.

When contacted, Deputy Commissioner Islamabad Mushtaq Ahmed, who also works as the commissioner CDA, confirmed that the CPO had sought permission for using the house but so for no decision had been taken.

Besides, the police officer said, the interior ministry had been approached seeking permission to file a petition with the court against the notice issued by the CDA.

Meanwhile, the Public Works Department (PWD), which is constructing the CPO building, was asked to expedite the work and complete it as soon as possible.

The CPO has been under construction for the last a couple of years but for over a year there has been no work due to the shortage of funds. The CPO has been set up in the house at the residential area of F-7/4 for over a decade. Once the house was owned by a national of Bangladesh but after his death it was found abandoned and later the capital police took it over in early ‘90s.

Initially, the house was used as police barracks and a police station till it was turned into the CPO.

The police said the Evacuee Trust and Property Board was the custodian of the house and monthly rent was being paid to it.

The CPO houses the offices of the inspector general of the police, deputy inspectors general operations and headquarters and assistant inspectors general operations, general and establishment.

Published in Dawn, January 8th, 2016