ISLAMABAD: In a classic case of abuse of authority by the officials of Capital Development Authority (CDA) and a government watchdog, at least eight kanals of prime land worth around Rs10 billion was fraudulently allotted in Sector E-11.

However, after timely intervention by an intelligence agency and the CDA management, the allotment was cancelled on Monday. A few days ago, the CDA chairman suspended two officials of the land directorate for their alleged involvement in the said case. Action against more officials is likely in the coming days.

Sources said a watchdog that busts corruption was involved in this case and its officials exerted undue pressure on CDA officials for early possession of the land. They even harassed the CDA officers, who put up resistance in possession matter. Last week, CDA’s Deputy Commissioner Sardar Mohammad Asif, Tehsildar Mirza Saeed, Gardawar Shafique and other officers were summoned by the officials of the watchdog unofficially, where they were directed to issue possession letter of the land in question as soon as possible.

Sources said CDA officials put up resistance and said that the allotment of the land was made in a suspicious manner; therefore, they could not issue a possession letter. Sources said that they were harassed for some hours and later allowed to leave with a direction to issue the possession letter the next day.

Nexus of CDA,anti-corruption body attempted to mint billions via land scam; officials to face music for wrongly using top sleuth’s name in fraud

After the officials did not comply with the directives, some of them were summoned by the watchdog through notices in an old case. This move was an apparent bid to ensure their presence in the watchdog’s office to coerce them into issuing a possession letter.

Sources said that during this scam to get possession of the land worth around Rs10 billion, the name of one of the key officials of an intelligence agency was also used. The intelligence official, who is known for credibility, was livid after he came to know about the fraud. The official told the CDA chief as well as the watchdog chairman that all involved in this scam would be taken to task.

Subsequently, the CDA sprang into action on Friday and suspended two officials while also launching an inquiry into the matter. Insiders said that the three-member inquiry committee headed by Director Security Fatehul Manan investigated the matter within three days, and on Monday they submitted their report.

During the inquiry, it was established that the land was allotted on the basis of bogus documents to the legal heirs of two affectees. Decades ago, the affectees’ land had been acquired by the CDA and they were entitled to get an alternate piece of land. However, the affectees had already received possession of a piece of land from the CDA in 2006 in Sector E-11. They had sold this land to two private housing societies-- Multi Professional and National Police Foundation-- operating in the same sector and the record of this transfer of land was available with the CDA’s revenue department.

Interestingly, the land directorate before making the recent allotment did not bother to get input from the revenue department and the CDA DC office, which is the custodian of the record of affectees.

Plan intercepted

Instead, this piece of information was concealed and a new file seeking land for the affected residents in Sector E-11 was moved. According to the claim, the land allotted to the residents in 2006 was in adverse possession of the housing societies in E-11, therefore they should be allotted eight kanal in the same sector.

The land directorate officials in the file concealed the fact that these allottees had already sold the piece of land received through a mutation (inteqal).

When the file reached the office of the member estate, he returned it after mentioning “seen as proposed”. The director land did not move the file again to the estate member before issuing the allotment letter in December 2022. Surprisingly, the allottees sold the land to a new party through the CDA without getting its possession.

The new party that had bought this land expedited the efforts to get possession of the land through a few officials of the CDA and the watchdog last week. After the CDA officials resisted the move, the matter also came to the notice of the intelligence agency as the name of one of its officers was being used in the scam. “Two officials have been suspended and next few days few more officials will be removed as during the inquiry it has been established that land was allotted fraudulently,” said a source.

When contacted, CDA’s spokesperson Syed Safdar Shah confirmed to Dawn that land was allotted fraudulently. He said that the allotment letter had been cancelled. “We have suspended two officials while others involved will also face music,” he said.

Asked about the harassment by officials of a watchdog and timely interference by the intelligence agency, he said: “Frankly, I have no knowledge about such things. Secondly, I am supposed to share the point of view of the CDA only,” he said.

Published in Dawn, September 5th, 2023