Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The Capital Development Authority (CDA) has shelved a set of important recommendations adopted by the Senate of Pakistan to regulate the illegal housing schemes as the implementation of the same in letter and spirit needs a strong will and firm commitment.

The CDA board, in its meeting held on 11 October, 2016, had deferred a detailed summary move by the Housing Societies Directorate containing recommendations prepared by a parliamentary body after long deliberations.

The board, after reviewing the senate standing committee’s recommendations, had decided that the summary needs further working to spell out level of violations practiced by private housing schemes and necessary amendments to be made in rules of civic body to regularise such violations.

The board further directed the concerned formation to examine the summary on professional grounds and table it again at the next meeting of the board. Unfortunately, there is no advancement on the said summary and it could not be discussed in the following session of the board.

Sources inside the civic body briefed that the higher ups of the civic body were not serious about these recommendations. They were of the view that the board should have to constitute a high level committee to implement these recommendations it was serious instead of just deferring the agenda item.

Earlier, in the light of the presentation given by the Director General of National Accountability Bureau (NAB), the senate standing committee prepared a 12-point report, which was later adopted by the Senate of Pakistan on 12 May 2016 in this regard. The report recommended that the role of the CDA officers and ICT administration shall be identified in the mushroom growth of illegal housing schemes while it was also proposed that the civic body should acquire maximum land for sectoral development to avoid development of illegal schemes on inherited land.

The report of the senate standing committee recommended taking of immediate steps by initiating land acquisition in Zone-III to stop further changes in the landscape of the Margalla Hills National Park.

Regularisation of schemes launched before the promulgation of Zoning Regulations 1992 is proposed by the parliamentary committee whereas revision of regulations in Zone-IV is also suggested.

The committee, while pointing out the cumbersome and years long procedures for issuance of NOC for private housing schemes had recommended to make the practices efficient and simple, by establishing one window operation in this regard. The civic body was also encouraged to launch low cost schemes to restrict the trend of illegal private housing schemes by tilted general masses towards their projects.

Report stated that the CDA regulations did not allow development of housing schemes in the area less than 400 kanals. However, it is recommended to amend the relevant regulations for the merger of already developed schemes, less than in the specified area.

It was also recoZmmended that the CDA shall sufficiently equip enforcement, environment, building control and planning wing with man forces and the latest machinery to ensure the implementation of its regulations while establishment of enforcement offices at different sites across the city was proposed to stop illegal schemes and illegal construction.

The committee recommended to refine the working mechanism between the CDA and the ICT by aligning rules and enhancing coordination of both government organisations.

According to the CDA, there are total 74 illegal housing schemes including 7 in Zone-II, 46 in Zone-4 and 11 in Zone-V.

The Member Planning of the CDA Asad Mehboob Kiani while talking to Daily Times said; “The board had deferred the summary because all the recommendations are not implementable.”

He said further: “We did not shelve the matter and should adopt the reasonable recommendations made by the Senate of Pakistan.”