Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Sardar Ahmed Ayaz Sadiq, the younger son of the National Assembly speaker, is pressuring the Capital Development Authority (CDA) to allow a commercial project on land originally earmarked for an IT university.

In 2007, CDA had leased out a large chunk of the land, measuring 41.25 acres (330 kanals) for the establishment of an information technology university in Zone-IV of Islamabad to a foreign firm M/S En-Point Technology. Now, the management of En-Point Technology wants to utilise the said land for commercial purposes and has requested CDA to approve a layout plan having commercial components ie residential apartments, luxury apartments, a hotel, a gym, a club, a hospital etc. However, they do not even have an approved charter for the establishment of an IT university from the departments concerned so far.

According to well-placed sources in CDA, Sardar Ahmed Ayaz Sadiq is actively pursuing the case and attended a series of meetings on this subject held in the office of Member Planning and Design Asad Mehboob Kiani in last two months. It is quite essential to mention here that a harsh statement of Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq is also on record in which he compared CDA to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and declared the civic body worse than Modi. “The statement was a reaction to CDA’s reluctance to approve the aforementioned project as it came in the same period of time when the matter was pending before CDA,” an officer of the authority said on the condition of anonymity.

When Daily Times contacted Sardar Ahmad Ayaz Sadiq, he said: “En-point technology is owned by one of our close family members, who wished to invest millions of dollars in Pakistan, but CDA is creating hurdles.”

“I am not using the influence of my father, but we want to settle the things according to law,” he added. “People in CDA are now highlighting the points, which they never took up before,” he said.

However, a CDA official said: “Not only is the purposed layout plan illegal and contrary to the actual purpose, the past history of the said allotment to a foreign firm is itself a scam.”

“It needs a thorough investigation by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA). It also requires an intervention from the chief justice of Pakistan to use his jurisdiction of suo moto as over a dozen irregularities have already been pointed out by the CDA Legal Adviser Hafiz Hifzur Rehman in the said allotment process,” he said.

Rehman had also tendered his resignation soon after writing his critical legal opinion on the file of the IT university. Some officers in the authority believe that his resignation is linked to the case. However, he cited personal reasons in his resignation.

According to the documents available with Daily Times, CDA had given an advertisement for seeking expression of interest (EOI) from national and international firms for the allotment of a piece of land measuring 30 acres in Zone-IV of Islamabad for the establishment of an IT University under built on transfer or joint venture basis in 2007.

Only a single party M/S En-Point Technology had approached CDA against that advertisement when at least three parties were required to contest as per the rules. However, the civic body, instead of going for re-advertisement, went for lease and gave the land worth billions of rupees to M/S En-Point Technology without following legal formalities.

Moreover, the advertisement was given for 30 acres of land under BOT basis, but later on the area of land was increased and a piece of land measuring 41.25 acres was leased out to the said foreign firm for a period of 99 years contrary to the advertisement.

Furthermore, through mala fide intentions, the word “university” was avoided in the lease agreement to favour of the private party and only “information technology campus” and “institute” were mentioned. However, the advertisement and all other earlier correspondence only mentions “the establishment of IT university”.

As per the sub para-6 of the para-7 of the Land Disposal Regulations 2005, large scale social projects involving large tracts of land, such as a private university, may be considered for special dispensation by the federal cabinet on a case-to-case basis. However, no such approval had been obtained in this case.

Documents show that M/S En-Point Technology is not a registered entity in Pakistan. So how was such a huge piece of land allotted to it without the prior approval of the federal government.

The officers dealing with the case seem to under intense pressure. No one is willing to even share details of the proposed layout.

When contacted, CDA Public Relations Director Mazhar Hussain said: “I assure you that any decision on the said case will be made after due deliberation and according to the law.”