Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The Capital Development Authority (CDA) is unable to extend its writ over the Diplomatic Enclave, as most of the embassies are in direct contact with the top leadership of the country and they never consider any notice of the city managers seriously, Daily Times learnt while discussing the issue with the relevant officers in the civic body.

According to details, a large number of violations related to building code and zoning regulations are continuously being committed by the foreign missions working in Islamabad, whereas, many embassies are also defaulters of the estate management directorate, in respect of delay in construction charges.

All concerning formations of the civic agency including the building control, the estate management and the planning, are helpless to fix these irregularities, committed by the embassies of different countries at the Diplomatic Enclave.

Sources inside the Building Control Section (BCS) briefed; “Most of the embassies are running in the absence of the completion certificates of their building plans and as per the law nobody can occupy his or her building without the final approval of the BCS section.”

He said further; “In routine, our inspectors visit the building during its construction period and assess the structure quality; whereas, we also ensure the raise of the building as per the original plan approved by the authority, but in case of the embassies, we don’t have a direct access to the their premises, which make us unable to take any action against them.”

The officer further said: “Mostly the embassies violated their approved building plan so that’s why they are avoiding to take completion certificates from the CDA.”

The officers at the Planning Wing of the CDA, on the request of Daily Times disclosed that the foreign missions were clearly violating the layout plan of the Diplomatic Enclave as some of the embassies i.e. Japan, Australia and France placed their T-Wall barriers on the green belt by covering the Service Road alongside the Constitution Avenue, whereas every embassy placed its own barriers on the roads inside the Enclave, which is an illegal act.”

He also briefed that the roads in the layout plan were 50 to 60 feet wide, but due to individual fortifications of the embassies now it had become too narrow and the left behind road is only 20 feet wide. Another officer, showing a letter written by the Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs, Tariq Fatmi, regarding the covering of the Service Road and the green belt by the Japan Embassy and revealed that in the beginning Tariq Fatmi wrote the said letter, but later could not resist the pressure by the foreign ambassadors and directed “us” unofficially to stop the process, which we was initiated after his letter.

On the the other side sources inside the Estate Management Directorate revealed that most of the embassies were liable to pay delayed construction charges to the Authority as they were allotted the plots decades ago, but they failed to construct the buildings. He said, “We have initiated a survey in this regard, but are left between due to the pressure of the higher-ups.”

One thing is quite important to mention here that the officers deputed in all formations were of the same view that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was not fulfilling its duties and always created delays and hurdles while facilitating communication between the CDA and foreign missions.

While responding to the issue, the spokesperson of the CDA, Malik Saleem, said; “All the foreign missions are bound to obey the law of the land.” He confirmed that the CDA cannot take action against any of the embassies directly.