Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Powerful elite has encroached upon the state land worth billions of rupees in the federal capital under the garb of beautification policy’, while the Capital Development Authority (CDA) seems helpless before them due to their influential positions.

According to documents available with Daily Times, large numbers of people have been using the state land adjacent to their houses for the last many years without paying a single penny as its rent.

In most of the cases, influential citizens have encroached upon the land without seeking prior permission from the Capital Development Authority (CDA). Some of them, however, were allowed by the civic body under certain terms and conditions.

In its meeting held on April 28, 2016, the CDA Board decided to revoke all such permission letters, citing rules violation in most of the cases.

The board declared that all such people had in fact encroached upon the precious land, therefore, cancelled the permission through insertion of a public notice in leading national dailies on June 15, 2016.

Around 66 people had got approval from the CDA to use the state land, according to documents.

For instance, a piece of land is under ‘exclusive’ use of Javed Ashraf, the younger brother of former prime minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf in Sector F-10/1. Moreover, Aziz Ahmad Bilour, the younger brother of former railways minister Ghulam Ahmed Bilour, PPP Senator Islamuddin Sheikh, Faisal Butt, a close aide of Asif Ali Zardari, and former National Assembly speaker Gohar Ayub have also allegedly “occupied” the state land in sectors F-6/3, F-10/2, F-8/2 and F-8/1, respectively.

Meanwhile, Islamabad Police Assistant Inspector General Waqar Ahmed Chohan, former Pakistan Sports Board director Imtiaz Ahmed Vohra, former KP Public Service Commission chairman Attaullah Khan and Seema Hafeez, an economist at the United Nationa, have alleged encroached upon several acres in sectors G-6/3, I-8/4, F-10/3 and F-8/3, respectively.

Former federal secretary Shahid Rafi has also allegedly encroached upon a huge piece of land in the name of a person, Afzal Wali in Sector F-7/3. Similarly, Amer Faruque, chief executive officer of Cherat Packaging Private Limited, commonly known as Cherat Cement, has encroached a piece of land in Sector F-10/1.

Besides politicians, bureaucrats and traders, some former military officers are also using state land without any legitimate right, which includes Lt General (r) Waseem Ahmed Ashraf in F-10/3, Major General (r) Waheed Arshad in F-6/4 and a building owned by Lt Col (r) Muhammad Ihsanul Haq in F-7/2, where the Frobel’s International School is housed currently.

In addition to aforementioned top guns, several high ups of CDA, including Deputy Director Finance Miskeen Shah Kazmi, CDA Hospital Executive Director Dr Muhammad Fayyaz Lodhi, Street Lights Director Roshan Jonejo, Health Director Dr Arshad Mehmood and former CDA tehsildar Raja Zahid have also made it to the list.

Talkint to Daily Times, a CDA officer, requesting anonymity, said: “All permissions were given purely to beautify the unutilised land in residential sectors but the main condition in these permission letters clearly mentioned that land won’t be used for personal benefits.

He said that most of the people who were granted permission had constructed boundary walls and illegal structures there.

CDA officers said that the policy was being bluntly misused so that’s way the authority had cancelled the same. Another officer of the authority, wishing not to be named, said: “The authority can earn billions of rupees by auctioning of plots.

In 2016, the civic body in a similar move had tried to auction some plots, however CDA’s Enforcement Directorate failed to retrieve the land due to resistance and court litigation.

Some officers interviewed by Daily Times were of the view that precious pieces of land could be retrieved by CDA because most of the people were highly influential. They said that only the Supreme Court could help the civic body retrieve the land.

While responding to the matter, CDA Member Estate Khushal Khan said: “Our enforcement teams are conducting anti-encroachment operations and we are trying to retrieve the land.”

Published in Daily Times, March 14^th 2018.