Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Capital Development Authority (CDA) has been failed to mention even a single measure taken in past three decades to curtail illegal developments in the area of Bani Gala, a report submitted by civic body in the Supreme Court of Pakistan clearly indicates.

The said report was submitted by Member Planning of the CDA in response to a Suo Moto taken by Chief Justice of Pakistan over a letter written by the Chairman Pakistan Tahreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Imran Khan, which correctly highlighted the ‘municipal lawlessness’ in Bani Gala.

The report listed sixteen factors leading to unplanned and unauthorized development in said area including the violations of laws, sale purchase through revenue department, unauthorized approval of building plans by union councils, approval of housing societies by Circle Registrar Cooperatives, litigation in the matter, failure in CDA operations due to the clashes with local inhabitants, limited capacity, lack of independent Building Control Authority, supply of services by IESCO and SNGPL without obtaining a license from the CDA.

However, the report did not mention even a single measure or effort taken by the authority to counter the aforementioned leading factors towards unauthorized developments in last three decades, but it tried to spoof the court by listing seventeen actions taken by CDA to enforce its regulations within the limits of ICT.

It is pertinent to mention here that all steps mentioned in the report has been taken in the month of March 2017 whereas three out of total seventeen are even taken after the Supreme Court’s intervention in the matter on 20 March, 2017.

The steps to enforce bylaws mainly revolved around the recent moves taken by the incumbent management of the CDA including a ban on utility connections without obtaining NoC from CDA, imposition of section 144 on unauthorized constructions and a ban on the advertisement of illegal housing societies and property projects in federal capital.

Sources inside the CDA commented that there is nothing to share with Supreme Court in the hands of civic body to justify its role because the authority never gives attention to this issue.

Even the authority never filed any review petition against the decision of theHonourable Supreme Court in a case titled “CDA vs Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan SCMR 2636, 1999” as the decision was supposed to need further clarification, but the same was equally misused by both CDA and property mafia according to their own interpretations.

However, Member Planning CDA Asad Mehboob Kiani while talking to the Daily Times has accepted that the authority did not take the issue of illegal developments seriously and said: “I am not bound to answer what the previous people has done, I can tell you the steps which we have taken to restrict unauthorized developments in the city.”

“The massive unregulated and unplanned development in the city is due to the negligence of past fifty years, but we are committed to end this menace as it is destroying the planned look of the city”, the Member added.