Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The Land and Rehabilitation Directorate (LRD) of the Capital Development Authority (CDA) illegally allotted 207 plots during a period when such allotments were officially banned, Daily Times has learnt.

Last year, CDA banned the allotment of plots to people whose land had earlier been acquired by the civic authority. The decision was taken on the directions of Capital Administration and Development Division (CADD) Minister Dr Tariq Fazal Chaudhry.

The ban was also endorsed by Islamabad Mayor Shaikh Ansar Aziz after assuming charge.

Three months ago, reports started appearing in the media that the LRD had issued allotment letters for 26 residential plots in various sectors even though the ban had not been lifted. Initially, the CDA administration denied the reports and declared that the allotment letters circulating in media were bogus.

The CDA Security Directorate also launched an investigation into the claims.

Now the initial inquiry has found that a total of 207 plots were allotted during the moratorium in various sectors. The inquiry report also contains a list of such plots.

“A ban on allotments was imposed by the Member Estate on May 20, 2016. All the allotment registers/embossing stamp registers were taken into the custody of Security Directorate on May 23, 2016. Later on, the record was returned to the Land Directorate on July 21, 2016. On September 19, 2016, the record was once again taken into custody by the Security Directorate on the directions of the staff director to the CDA chairman,” the preliminary inquiry report, available with Daily Times, stated.

“A total 207 plots in various sectors were allotted during the ban. A total of 206 allotments were made from July 21, 2016 to September 9, 2016. The remaining plot — 69-B in Sector F-11/4 — was allotted on February 2, 2017,” the report stated.

The report not only identified the number of illegal allotments, but also pointed out that plots 1246-C, 1246-D, 1246-E, 1246-F and 1246-G in Sector I-11/2 were allotted against land claims for which the owners had already received compensation in the shape of a piece of land in Jhang District in 1980. The grant of dual benefit to land owners caused losses worth millions of rupees to the exchequer.

Talking to Daily Times, CDA Estate Member Khushal Khan expressed ignorance over the contents of the report.

“I don’t know anything about this report, but I assure you that I don’t have any role in this affair,” he said.

When contacted, Islamabad Mayor Shaikh Ansar Aziz confirmed the findings of the report.

“Yes, the preliminary report of Security Directorate has found that 207 plots were allotted during the moratorium. Most of the allotments were made by former Land and Rehabilitation deputy director general Abdul Salam Shah before my tenure. Some letters were even issued on his last working day,” he said.

“We have constituted an inquiry committee, comprising the Regional Planning Director Ayub Tariq and Deputy Director Waheed Abbas, to fix responsibility,” he said.

To a question regarding the legal status of the 207 letters issued during the ban, he said: “I think these letters are totally fraudulent and have no legal grounds.”

Published in Daily Times, July 25^th 2017.