More than 100 housing societies in Islamabad have no legal cover. Housing societies are busy allotting residential plots to various sectors of the capital for the past few years, purchased plots in thousands without getting a No-Objection Certificate from the civic agency Capital Development Authority (CDA). According to the available information, more than 100 housing societies are operating illegally following that they have not adopted the rules and regulations of the civic agency while selling plots in hundreds. According to the law of CDA, every housing society is bound to make space for Children’s Park, a religious institution, a green belt and a school but most of them didn’t adopt the plan provided by CDA. The layout plan which should be followed by the operators of the housing societies provided by the CDA wasn’t adopted due to which the beautiful geographic landscape of the capital damaged due to the illegal housing societies. An official of the CDA told that the housing societies that want to continue their business are bound not only to get NOC from CDA but additionally submit documents to the National Accountability Bureau but they didn’t adopt the rules. The official added that most of the zones of Islamabad are on fault line as identified after the 2005 major earth quake in the country but the plan of building codes wasn’t adopted during the process. “Housing societies are supported by a big mafia since long and taking action against the mafias isn’t possible for CDA to recover the land,” he added. In present tenure, more than 150 housing societies are active in Islamabad but most of them didn’t get NOC from the civic agency while running their plots. Most of the housing societies sell hundreds of their plots before getting NOC from the relevant department. When inquired from the officials of CDA, they told that most of the officers working in that tenure are now retired or transferred to other departments and it’s now the responsibility of the corruption watchdog NAB to inquire from them on their negligence. Published in Daily Times, October 16th 2018.