Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: A parliamentary body has directed the Capital Development Authority (CDA) to end the prevailing deadlock over the rate of land and asked the civic body to allot the said land on concessionary rate to the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE).

The proposed reduction in price will result a cut of over Rs 2 billion in the revenue of the CDA.

The land measuring 17.55 acres in Sector H-11/2 was allotted to PIDE at the rate of Rs 42,358 per square yard, but its administration demanded a reduction in the price of land and wanted to pay only Rs 14,551 per square yard to the CDA.

Sources inside the CDA told Daily Times that the price of land could not be reduced by the authority, as it was not allowed as per the rules, and if “we allowed such a change in this case than it will cost over Rs 2 billion loss to the public exchequer”.

“If we reduced the rates once for the PIDE then other institutions will also ask us for the same favour in the future,” an officer of the CDA’s Planning Wing said on the condition of anonymity.

The PIDE is public sector research institute working in the field of development economics, which was established by the government of Pakistan in 1957. The institute was given the status of a degree-awarding institute in 2010 through an act of parliament.

The CDA board had allotted 17.55 acres land in Sector H-11/2 for the establishment of a campus of the PIDE at the rate of Rs 42,358 per square yard, which was subsequently approved by the Prime Minister’s Office.

However, the management of the PIDE requested the Prime Minister’s Office to reduce the rate of land by arguing that Rs 42,358 was a rate applicable on plots meant for ground plus nine storeys, whereas it wanted to pay Rs 14,551, which was a rate of plots meant for ground plus four storeys.

In response, the PM’s Office asked the PIDE to opt for construction of ground plus four storeys and approach the CDA for such rates accordingly. The PIDE requested the civic body for the reduction in rates, but its request was turned down by the CDA board in its meeting held on February 24, 2017.

Meanwhile, the CDA chairman in a meeting with the federal minister for planning development and reforms had requested to solicit clear directives of the prime minister for reduction in rates.

The Prime Minister’s Office approved a summary in this regard, which was prepared by the Ministry of Planning Development and Reforms, and directed the CDA to revise the rate of land after due process of obtaining permission of the board.

The meeting of the sub-committee of the National Assembly Standing Committee on Planning Development and Reforms was held at the Parliament House under the chair of Chaudhry Jafar Iqbal on Wednesday.

CDA’s Member Estate Khushal Khan informed the committee that the Prime Minister’s Office had directed to put the matter in front of the CDA board again, and the same could not be materialised as one of the board members was out of country.