Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The managements of Safa Gold Mall and Cinepax are once again trying to resolve their outstanding issues pertaining to the construction of five cinemas on the 8th floor of the shopping mall after recent orders passed by the Islamabad High Court,

Meanwhile, the CDA is losing its moral position in the court due to a long delay of a departmental inquiry in this regard.

According to details, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) had directed the Capital Development Authority (CDA) and the management of Safa Gold Mall and Cinepax on August 30 to sit together and amicably resolve all the outstanding issues but the meeting could never be arranged.

Meanwhile, during the last hearing held on September 19, the court once again directed the CDA to listen to the grievances of the parties and submit a report on the next date of the hearing.

The Safa Gold Mall and the Cinepax management after court directions, have formally contacted with the civic body and requested for a meeting in this regard.

In two separate letters written by the owner of Safa Gold Mall, Rana Abdul Qayum and Manager Legal and Public Relations Cinepax, Saeed Chaudhry, it was requested to give them a chance to explain their position as per the directions of the court.

The letter written by the management of Cinepax emphasised that around 80 per cent construction work on cinemas had already been done by spending Rs.154,965,242, whereas, it was also submitted by the cinema’s management that they were facing a loss of millions of rupees each day as their investment was stuck in the said project.

In response, the Member Planning, Waseem Ahmed Khan, called both the parties separately in his office and listened to their grievances in detail.

However, while talking to Daily Times, the Member Planning said; “I met with both the parties as the court directed us to do so. We will scrutinise each and every point as per the rules and regulations of the civic body and then submit our report to the court on the next date of the hearing.”

Instead of commenting on the legal points, the owner of Safa Gold Mall, Rana Abdul Qayum, as usual criticised the CDA and said: “The Design Vetting Committee (DVC) of the Building Control Department had approved the construction of cinemas on the 8th floor of my mall in 2012, but now they are deviating from their own decision.”

He also said: “The authority officers are victimising me as I refused to give them bribe and also assisted the law enforcement agencies to send their colleagues behind the bars.”

On the other side sources inside the Law Directorate of the CDA criticised the slow proceedings of the inquiry committee constituted against those who were involved in the illegal approval of the 8thfloor of Safa Gold Mall.

They briefed further that the undue delay in the finalisation of the probe was creating hurdles for the CDA councils to present their case in the court as the judges question them what the CDA has done so far against its own officers, who were involved in the said illegality.

The head of the inquiry committee, Member Engineering of the CDA, Shahid Sohail, while responding on the delay said: “Initially, the accused persons were not replying, but now they have submitted their written reply and the inquiry would be concluded within weeks.”

He informed further that he was on leave due to his personal commitments, but now in a short span of time he would submit his report as he knew about the sensitivity of the matter.