Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: CDA chairman Sheikh Ansar Aziz has turned down the findings of an inquiry committee made to probe the illegalities at Safa Gold Mall and ordered de novo inquiry.

A three-member committee headed by Member Engineering of the CDA, Shahid Sohail, concluded a long delayed departmental inquiry on Wednesday.

The inquiry committee after scrutinizing the official record, the written replies from the accused persons, in person hearings and the verification sought from different offices has found two officers of the Authority guilty of extending undue favours to the owner of Safa Gold Mall.

The inquiry committee declared deduction of the circulation area from the total permissible Floor Area Ration (FAR) as illegal.

The committee further declared that all the cases provided by the accused persons in their replies as precedents were totally irrelevant and they did not have any similarity and relevancy with the case in instance as the FAR and the floors were clearly mentioned in the allotment latter.

The report further recommended that the Authority should impose a penalty on those, who were involved in this case. Furthermore, it was recommended that the three upper floors of Safa Gold Mall should also be demolished, as these were illegal.

Those who have been declared guilty are: former director building control section, Ghulam Murtaza Malik, and deputy director, Ammar Idrees whereas the former deputy director planning, Ghulam Sarwar Sindhu and deputy director Ali Abdullah, have been cleared.

It is pertinent to mention here that the said probe was pending before the said committee for a long period. It came under the limelight when the IHC asked the CDA counsel about the findings and directed to conclude and submit the report.

According to the sources in the civic body, Shaikh Ansar Aziz has disagreed with the findings concluded in this departmental committee and ordered a fresh inquiry in this case by arguing that certain aspects had been left unattended and needed further investigation.

Earlier, it was supposed that the Authority would present this inquiry report in the IHC on Monday, but now the sources have confirmed that the Chairman CDA has directed not to present the findings to the court and ordered to inform the court regarding the constitution of a de novo inquiry in this case.

The turning down of inquiry just after one day of its submission by the Member Engineering reveals how much the Authority is serious to take action against its own officers and to reverse the irregularities which took place in the past.

A well-placed source briefed that the Builders Association of Islamabad are continuously forcing the higher-ups of the Authority especially Mayor Shaikh Ansar Aziz to pressuring him to launch a de novo inquiry into the matter.

President Islamabad Developer Association, Chaudhry Naseer, while commenting on the situation has accepted that the builders of the city want a relaxation in the calculation of the circulation area in FAR as it is in the favour of the city.

An officer of the Building Control Section (BCS) has briefed that Safa Gold Mall is going to be a precedent as the mayor and the new member planning has failed to sustain the pressure of influential builders.

FAR meant that how much area a party can construct on its plot. The builders want to exclude galleries, corridors and service areas from the total cover area as by doing this they can construct more shops and flats on their plot which resultantly gives more financial benefit to them.