Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The Estate Wing of the Capital Development Authority (CDA) looks reluctant to take action against properties whose leases have expired, as Land and Estate (L&E) Deputy Director General (DDG) Islam Shah has ruled out any possibility of stern action against expired lease agreements.

It was highlighted by Daily Times that lease agreements of 982 plots – 407 commercial section plots, 345 industrial section plots, 155 agricultural section plots and 75 government section plots – have expired, but the lease holders did not contact the CDA for renewal of the same, which stuck the revenue of billions of rupees.

In routine, the authority allots any piece of land on lease for 33 years, extendable to two further terms.

As per land disposal regulations of the CDA, the leaseholder is bound to seek an extension from the authority after the completion of each term, but the aforementioned figures show that a large number of expensive properties were being occupied by leaseholders without renewal of the agreements.

The city managers estimate a revenue loss of around Rs 2 billion due to the non-renewal of these lease agreements.

After repeated attempts to find out the official version regarding what the authority would do against these expired properties, Islam Shah told Daily Times, “It is in our knowledge that the lease of around 1,000 plots have expired and we are taking action against them.”

When asked what action the wing had taken so far, he failed to give any details and just said, “We will issue show cause notices to the occupants and ask them to get the agreements renewed.”

It is worth mentioning here that the expiry of lease agreements is not a recent issue; most of the expired agreements are awaiting renewal for the last many years.

The L&E DDG is enjoying almost all powers of the estate member, as there is no permanent estate member in the authority, whereas CDA Planning Member Waseem Ahmed has additional charge of the Estate Wing.

Sources inside the authority said that the L&E Wing is only taking those cases seriously, which bring monetary benefits to the officials and the tout mafia, as the wing is going to re-launch the allotment process against claims of people whose land had been acquired by the CDA in the past. The said process was stopped after the news emerged in the media and subsequent protest by estate agents regarding corruption and malpractices in the whole process.