Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The Member Planning of the Capital Development Authority (CDA) has submitted an offer in the Islamabad High Court (IHC) for regularisation of three unauthorised floors of Safa Gold Mall.

The Member Planning CDA, Asad Mehboob Kiani, has informed the court on Wednesday that the civic body, after calculating the financial impact for unauthorised enhanced circulation area had decided to regularise three unauthorised floors of the said shopping mall, if the owner submits Rs 2.3 billion as the penalty amount in addition to its already outstanding dues of Rs 0.4 billion.

The Safa Gold Mall is a controversial project since the auction of its plot as the Plot No. 5 in F-7 Markaz was created by removing a medical dispensary of the CDA from the spot.

Furthermore, as per the allotment letter, the ground plus the four stories’ structure was allowed on this plot, but the owner of the said plot by managing the CDA officials had got one after another tented approvals for three extra floors.

The issue of these illegal floors was first highlighted, when the owner of the said shopping mall once again entered into a contract with a third party and rented out its roof top for the construction of five cinema halls.

Initially, the CDA administration had permitted the construction of these cinema halls, but when the issue came under the spot light, it had withdrawn the approvals and launched an inquiry against those, who were involved in granting the illegal approvals.

After cancelling the previous permissions, the civic body had also sealed the premises of the shopping mall, but unsealed it after the court’s intervention. Some weeks before, the court had referred back the matter to the civic body for an amicable resolution.

In response, the CDA had stated its consent to regularise the unauthorised floors by imposing a heavy amount as fine.

The Member Planning, while talking to Daily Times said: “We have offered the owner a fine amount after keeping in view all the market realities and it is a just price by all aspects.”

Answering to a question about the other options in the hand of the city managers if the owner declines to pay the penalty, the Member said: “It is our offer to settle the dispute as we want to save the third party stakes, who invested millions and purchased shops and flats, but in case if the mall management will not accept it we will confiscate the shopping mall.”

Meanwhile, the situation has become ridiculous in the court room, when the legal counsel of the cinema halls and Safa Gold Mall locked their horns with each other as the counsel representing the cinema halls were of the view that their clients were ready to pay the dues in either case if the owner takes over the building or the CDA management while the lawyer of Safa Gold Mall has strongly objected against this statement and said they can’t give a consenting statement as they are in contract with the owner of the shopping mall not with the CDA.

A departmental inquiry committee headed by the Member Engineering of the CDA had already grilled its two officers Malik Ghulam Murtaza and Ammar Idress guilty for granting illegal approvals to the owner of Safa Mall, but the Chairman, CDA, and the Mayor of Islamabad disagreed with the findings and announced a de novo probe into the matter.

The de novo probe which is headed by the Director General, Human Resource Directorate, Nadeem Akbar Malik, is still pending, which is badly harming the repute of the civic body in the court.