ISLAMABAD: In a report submitted to the Islamabad High Court (IHC), the Capital Development Authority (CDA) confirmed that senior minister in Punjab Aleem Khan encroached on government land to connect his Park View Housing Society to Kuri Road.

The report, which was scheduled to be filed in December, was filed on Saturday after the IHC criticised the inordinate delay.

In response to IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah’s directions, the CDA submitted the report after the hearing of a petition seeking registration of an FIR against Mr Khan for encroaching on the land.

The housing developer had claimed that they built a road on land that was allocated for this purpose, but the CDA’s report said that not only was the land not allocated for the road, but also pointed the finger at two senior bureaucrats who worked as CDA chairman in the recent past.

The report stated: “The developer was not in ownership of the gap between CDA land and project land.”

Regarding the housing society’s claim that the road was already proposed by the CDA in its concept plan, the authority said that “this was only a concept plan for Kurri and not an approved layout of Kurri project. Thus the CDA road [was] being an indicative road rather than an approved road which is [done] after topographical survey.”

Authority submits report saying developer built a road on land not meant for this purpose, on the basis of which it received an NOC

The authority admitted to its mistake in allowing Mr Khan to build the road in May 2018. The report said: “This decision of the CDA board of May 09, 2018, allowed the developer to fulfil the requirements of the conditions of no objection certificate (NOC).”

There was no access road between Mr Khan’s development and the main road, which is a requirement for an NOC. However, the CDA allowed the road to be built, thereby enabling it to qualify for the NOC.

The report said: “Had CDA not granted access through its land and taken up a concept plan road as an actual road, the condition could not have been fulfilled.”

An NOC was later issued on the basis of the provision of this access road. Towards the end of 2018, the land on which the road was built was transferred to the CDA, the report said.

In an earlier hearing in this matter in November 2019, the IHC asked the CDA to justify the permission granted to the housing society to utilise the acquired land and to “satisfy this court that it is not a case which ought to be referred to [the National Accountability Bureau] to be dealt with under National Accountability Ordinance 1999.”

Park View City was being developed in an inaccessible area, and according to CDA records permission to use the land was given to the society in June 2018 when Usman Akhtar Bajwa was CDA chairman. During the tenure of CDA chairman Afzal Lateef, permission to use the access road was cemented by the mutation of some areas in favour of the CDA that connected the project to CDA land.

The matter was pursued by the CDA planning wing, then headed by member planning Asad Mehboob Kayani, who has since retired.

During the hearing of this case on Saturday, no one was in attendance from the CDA’s side.

Justice Minallah remarked: “This is a matter of public importance because it, prima facie, appears that the CDA and the local administration have abdicated their powers by facilitating a private entity to take law in its own hands.”

He directed the CDA chairman to nominate a representative to explain why the NOC was issued to Mr Khan after his petition seeking one was dismissed by the IHC. The court had dismissed Park View Housing Society’s petition in December 2017 seeking directions to the CDA to issue an NOC.

Further hearing in this case has been adjourned until Aug 3.

Published in Dawn, July 26th, 2020