Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: A special committee under the chairmanship of Member Estate CDA Kushal Khan has been constituted by a subcommittee of the National Assembly Committee on Government Assurance, which is mandated to work out a feasible formula to settle the disputes with the land affected persons of Sector E-12.

The meeting of the Subcommittee on Government Assurance was held here in the head office of the Capital Development Authority (CDA) to discuss the sole agenda item regarding resent development in Sector E-12, which was met under the chair of its convener, Member National Assembly (MNA), Abdul Majeed Khan Khail on Wednesday.

The Member Planning and Design CDA, Asad Mehboob Kiani, briefed the committee members that Sector E-12 was announced in the 1970s. But the CDA acquired land for around 5,000 housing units it proposed to provide to citizens in 1985. Spread over 777.27 acres, the land consisted of six Muzas, Dharek Mohri, Bhakar Mohri, Bhakkar Fateh Baksh, Bara Darri, Sari Saral and Golra Sharif.

“Around 90 % people have already been compensated through allocation of alternative plots while are around 1200 out of total 1900. People also received monetary compensation against claims of their built up properties. However, after the passing of 25 years, now their next generations are unwilling to handover the possession of land to the CDA and demanded undue favours”, Mr. Kinai further explained. The Member Planning informed that a meeting with the elected representative of the area was also held but nothing could be materialised as an outcome of that meeting.

The committee members criticised the absence of the Mayor of Islamabad Shaikh Ansar Aziz and Deputy Mayors Syed Zeshan Shah and Chaudhry Rifat Mehmood from the meeting and directed to ensure their presence in the next meeting as both deputies belong to the same area on which the committee is working.

The mover of a calling attention notice in the National Assembly regarding non-development of the said sector, MNA Shair Akbar, said: “The CDA had spent millions of rupees on advertisement for the promotion of E-12 Sector by declaring; “just buy and build your home”, but failed to handover the possession of even a single plot so far.” The Committee’s convener, Abdul Majeed Khan Khail, while citing his own experience said: “Corruption is a major hurdle in the functioning of the CDA and without giving bribe nothing is possible here.”

The newly appointed member estate CDA has sought two months’ time to proceed further in the matter, but it was rejected by the convener of committee, who said; “we are not asking you to settle years’ old dispute in days, but we need day to day progress on the matter.”

MNA Malik Ibrar, who was quite vocal throughout the meeting suggested: “The meeting should be held after one week, in which the State Minister for Capital Administration and Development Division (CADD) Dr Tariq Fazal Chaudhry and notables of aforementioned areas must be invited.” It was decided to hold the next meeting on February 8 while directing the CDA to constitute a committee comprising the authority’s officers and representatives of the ICT administration, which would work out a feasible solution to settle the land dispute of E-11 and also submit a report in the next meeting of the committee.

Sources inside the civic body alleged that MNA Malik Ibrar was concerned about his own interests in the development of Sector E-11 and was using the committee for furtherance of his agenda. When questioned by Daily Times why only E-11 is being discussed while the land affectted of other sectors are also facing similar problems, Mr. Malik responded: “The issue of E-11 is a different one as there are two types of affectted, one who sold their land to the CDA and those who purchased plots from the CDA.”