Daily Times

High officials at District Municipal Administration (DMA) are taking heavy bribes to award open space licenses to people, taking Rs 50,000 to Rs 100,000, an official of the DMA informed while talking exclusively to Daily Times.

Sources added that DMA officials are taking bribes to accommodate people. He added that in routine, dozens of files are in process for approval of open space license grant but only those people are entertained who pay heavy bribes. The others have to wait for years.

“The applicants requesting for open space license encroached public space through their shops and hotels,” the official added.

An official of the enforcement wing of the Capital Development Authority (CDA) told that an open space license allows people to encroach public space that is why most of the markets inside Islamabad are encroached. He added that when we conduct operation inside the markets they provide us license which is approved by the DMA. He further added that most of the people inside markets made fake licenses because there is no check and balance from DMA.

DMA Director Zafar Iqbal, also while talking exclusively to Daily Times said that open space license is a source of revenue for the department as the people give millions to them in order to acquire that license.

He added that when a person files an application to acquire a license, the DMA team checks the spot and after a monitoring process, “we award the license”. He added that there is no fact that DMA has awarded licenses in hundreds.

He also denied taking heavy bribes in order to grant open space licenses and said that these are nothing but rumours and speculations as we award licenses on merit and ground situation.

Published in Daily Times, December 16^th 2018.