Burgeoning issue: Civic agency fails to meet rising housing needs

Planning and development of sectors rests with the CDA, not local government

ISLAMABAD:

In the face of an ever increasing population influx to the capital, the city’s civic agency has failed to address the basic need of housing for citizens.

There are a number of reasons for this serious failure, including bureaucratic snags, cumbersome procedures and rampant corruption and connivance of civic authorities with land mafia in relevant government offices.



Despite all these factors, the government has allowed the Capital Development Authority (CDA) to retain the important function of developing residential sectors in the capital, despite its unimpressive track record in this regard.

Under the newly introduced Islamabad Local Government Act, the overall planning of the city, as well as development of its sectors, rests with the civic agency. This function has not been given to the local government.

According to the 1998 census, Islamabad’s population was around 800,000. In 2011, the population was projected to be 1.7 million. Migration of population from all over the country is resulting in haphazard expansion of the capital, as well unplanned growth in housing needs.

CDA’s failure

The city’s master plan identifies Zone-I of the capital as the main residential sectors. It covers an area of 55,162 acres, and the authority was supposed to develop some 58 sectors in phases in this zone. Till date, the authority has developed only 29 sectors and failed to develop the remaining half.



The situation has resulted in the ever increasing cost of residential properties in developed sectors, and the authority seems unable to develop residential sector announced decades ago.

Since its establishment in 1960, the CDA has so far provided 60,000 housing units in 25 residential sectors, accommodating nearly 700,000 citizens, according the agency’s planning wing.

Lengthy and cumbersome procedures including issues of land acquisition, payment for property costs, ensuring removal of built-up properties, payment of compensation, and finally development costs, are stated to be major hurdles behind the 29 undeveloped sectors.

“Provision of planned and environmental friendly housing is the prime responsibility of the CDA, according to the city’s master plan,” said a CDA planning wing official, admitting that the authority has failed in fulfilling this responsibility. We need to find new avenues, he said, to pave a way for the sectors’ development, rather than sticking to old procedures.

Way forward

In 1992, the CDA came up with new land regulations. The mandate of land development was shared with private developers by allowing them to initiate housing societies. Zones II, IV and V were specified for the purpose.



Private societies began operation between 2001 and 2002.

Today, the city has nearly 150 housing societies, and over 100 of them are declared illegal in official documents, primarily due to weak enforcement of laws, primarily due to rampant corruption in civic departments, who are responsible for an oversight of land developers.

One cannot ignore the fact that private societies — legal and illegal — have provided some 100,000 housing units in the last 15 years, bridging to some extent the housing gap.

However, the regulators of these societies —- the Security Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) and Circle Registrar —- shift the responsibility to the CDA, which approves the layout of housing schemes.

Private developers are accused of going beyond their mandate by using up amenity plots and other such irregularities. At the same time, however, the city has some success stories like development of sectors F-17 and D-17 by a private housing society.

The civic agency is left with no other option but to engage the private sector to develop residential sectors in Zone-I, the official said.

“In this scenario, although the CDA will lose its sole ownership over revenue, it will help development of sectors and bringing property costs to normal levels,” he said. “Unavailability of space is not an issue of Islamabad, as it has nearly 19,000 acres of land awaiting development in Zone-I alone,” the official added.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 11^th, 2016.