Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The top bosses of Capital Development Authority (CDA) have closed their eyes from the irregularly approved building plan of the American Embassy while the construction work is continue.

Sources revealed that the security agencies expressed their higher anger over the construction of eight storey of the USA embassy at diplomatic enclave, G-5.

The sources inside the CDA claimed that due to high risk of security (including the Parliament, President Secretariat and Prime Minister Secretariat) the law enforcement agencies wrote a letter in this regard that how the US Embassy build eight stories without the consent of the competent authority, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

According to the documents available with Daily Times,a letter from security agencies vide no.531 dated 12th of February 2012 was written to the then Chairman CDA indicated that CDA issued No-Objection Certificate (NOC) to US Embassy for massive construction of eight story building covering a total area 1,734,212,23 sq ft.

An official of the security agency who requested not to be named stated that the matter about the monitoring of confidential buildings and departments of the Government, with the help of electronic surveillance devices has been witnessed, and the agencies has been thoroughly probing into this case.

This agency is concerned that it will overlook most of Ministries and other official buildings in Red-Zone along with the Constitution Avenue. In all probability, rooftop of the aforementioned embassy building would be utilized to install surveillance devices, which can conveniently be used to electronically monitor very important offices of the Government of Pakistan in the area.

The agency proposed in its letter that the NOC to the US Embassy may be put on hold and CDA bye laws should appropriately be amended in order to regulate height of non-government structures, in vicinity of the constitutional avenue. It is pertinent to mention that as per eleventh board meeting held in 2012 having vide no. 1905, the board decided to increase FAR 1:2:4 and decided that number of stories would be Ground plus seven stories (G+7) for diplomatic enclave.

However, before the implementation of the decision the case was forwarded to Cabinet Division for seeking approval of Prime Minister of Pakistan. The board also decided to hold on the NOC till final decision.

It is to be noted here that during the scrutiny of building plan of the US Embassy; it has been observed by the authority that building plan of above site was approved by the Building Control Section (BCS) Directorate CDA No. CDA/DD/BCS-II-6(21) USA/Embassy/2011/10976 dated 10th of January 2012 for the area of 41,140 square yard for eight floors at sixteen different places in contradiction to the existing building bye laws.

A high official of the CDA on the condition of anonymity said that despite stopping construction as approval was not granted by the Prime Minister of Pakistan, the CDA closed eyes from this important issue because the construction work is in process.

Moreover, the Member Estate vide its note number N/67 write a letter in this regard to Chairman CDA and proposed action under E&D rules against the concerned officers for this elapse, but no action was shown on record to stop the construction which is going on. Anyhow, Audit maintains that irregularity occurred due to lack of oversight mechanism for implementation of internal controls.

When contacted, Director BCS Shafi Marwat stated that the US Embassy has constructing eight stories without the approval of PM Nawaz, while the authority has decided to take action against every irregular or illegal actions or doings.

When contacted, the spokesperson for US Embassy, Chris Sniper take a stance that construction plan for the new embassy compound was approved by the CDA on January 10th, 2012. However, he was answerless when questioned about the approval of Prime Minister for the construction of high-rise building in diplomatic enclave.