ISLAMABAD: The city managers on Tuesday acknowledged before a parliamentary committee that almost all the housing schemes in Zone II, IV and E-11 had violated their layout plans.

Briefing the Senate Standing Committee on Cabinet Secretariat at a meeting presided over by Senator Talha Mehmood, CDA Director Housing Societies Faraz Malik said the sponsors of the housing schemes were required to allocate/reserve space for parks, graveyards and schools, etc.

“But almost all the housing schemes made violations in their approved layout plants,” read a document which the CDA officer presented before the committee.

The civic agency also confessed that almost all the housing schemes had eaten up land reserved for parks, green areas and other sites.

The document said the CDA had forwarded cases against five housing societies to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and NAB for the registration of cases against them.

These societies included Pakistan Medical Cooperative Housing Society, E-11; Khayaban-i-Kashmir Housing Schemes, G-15, F-15 Zone II, Multi Gardens Housing Scheme in Zone II, Sohan Gardens Housing Scheme, Zone V, and Jeddah Town in Zone IV.

It may be noted that there are a large number of housing schemes in these two zones but the civic agency has never initiated any action against the major housing societies.

The committee expressed surprise over the lenient approach of the CDA towards the misuse of welfare plots and directed it to furnish complete details at the next meeting.

The CDA was supposed to submit the details of all the welfare plots and their current status to the committee. However, it presented general information without the current status of the plots (sites).

The committee termed the information incomplete and directed the CDA to furnish the details, including the prices and status of the plots, completion of construction period and litigation on the plots, if any.

“We will recommend cancellation of all those plots whose allottees are not fulfilling the terms of the allotments,” said the committee chairman, adding the CDA law directorate in many cases was hands in glove with the allottees of commercial plots.

“I came to know that the CDA allotted a commercial plot about 27 years ago but still there is litigation as the civic agency is not pursuing the case properly,” he said.

Senator Yousuf Badani said it had been an old habit of the CDA to allot commercial plots and then give a “chance” to the allottees to file cases in the court to linger on the payments.

“After paying the initial agreed upon amount to the CDA, the allottee sells out the plot against a huge price,” he said.

The committee members also expressed reservations on Shifa International Hospital’s plot which the CDA sold to it against a throwaway price. The members said the hospital was not providing free health facilities to the poor patients.

The committee chairman said the CDA had allotted a plot located near Shifa Hospital for the construction of a madressah but later a university was set up on the plot.

In the past, the status of several plots allotted for the establishment of clinics at throwaway prices was changed by the CDA board, enabling the allottees to construct commercial buildings on the plots instead.

Published in Dawn, March 1st, 2017