Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Some real estate dealers are offering residential apartments for sale on a plot owned by Capital Development Authority (CDA) in the Diplomatic Enclave, Daily Times has learnt.

The project named ‘Beverly Hills, Diplomatic Enclave’ is being marketed on a number of real estate web portals, where property dealers are offering residential flats for Rs 20 million to Rs 45 million.

When Daily Times contacted one of the dealers, Sajjad, via his cell number given on a web portal as client, he responded with full confidence. He shared the initial details of the project by sending drawings of a 10-storey building that, he said, was going to be constructed at the plot.

According to him, the project will be built on plot number 14-C, located in the Diplomatic Enclave Islamabad, close to the United States’ Embassy. When asked to give a contact number of actual owner of the plot or the project manager, Sajjad replied: “I cannot give you the direct contact details, but I can manage a ‘deal’ if you want. The rates I offer are the lowest in market as we are the main dealer of this project in the market.”

However, as per the CDA’s land record, plot number 14-C is still the property of the CDA. This plot was auctioned by CDA in December, 2016 for Rs 430,000 per square yard to Faizur Rehman. Later on, the civic body offered the plot to the successful bidder for a total amount of Rs 2.02 billion.

However, Rehman failed to submit the down-payment for the plot and subsequently the offer letter was withdrawn by the CDA. The Rs 10 million deposited by successful bidder in the form of earnest money was also confiscated.

Requesting anonymity, a CDA official said that Rehman had moved a court against withdrawal of the offer letter and termination of the bid. “However, the court had not given him any relief. Now it has once again been included in the list of plots that will be auctioned by the CDA,” the source said.

However, the authority is playing the role of a silent spectator even when estate agents are attempting to deceive the people by selling non-existent flats on CDA land.

Sale and purchase of flats using the location of CDA land is fraud and a question mark on the performance of the authority.

CDA Estate Member Khushal Khan is the custodian and manager of the properties of civic body. When Daily Times contacted him, he said: “Taking action against such rackets is not my responsibility.”

CDA Planning and Development Member Asad Mehboob Kiani also expressed similar views without any intention of taking punitive action against the estate agents. However, he conceded that nobody was allowed to announce any project on plot 14-C as it was still the property of CDA.

On the other side, a source inside the authority said: “It seems CDA is waiting for the public to be swindled. The Islamabad mayor has been giving undue favour to this party from day one. He had delayed the termination of offer letter for months after Rehman failed to pay the down payment, which is usually payable within 72 hours’ after the auction,” another CDA official said on the condition of anonymity.