Overcharging with impunity: Swindling visitors at Fatima Jinnah Park

People blame CDA for negligence and lack of accountability.


Azam Khan May 20, 2011

ISLAMABAD:


Residents of the capital city are regularly ripped off by contractors and face numerous problems when visiting Fatima Jinnah Park in F-9, whose ownership the relevant CDA departments shrink from taking.


The Project Management Office (PMO) of the Capital Development Authority (CDA) identified a number of irregularities in the tenders awarded to contractors by the authority’s Directorate of Municipal Administration (DMA).

Sources in the civic body told The Express Tribune that after receiving several complaints from the PMO and the residents of the city, CDA Chairperson Imtiaz Inayat Elahi paid a surprise visit to the park and found contractors involved in “corrupt practices”.

Despite Elahi’s directions, DMA did not cancel the controversial tenders. Besides demanding high entry fees, the staff at the park routinely misbehave with visitors and harass women, sources added.

A resident of the city, Umayr Sahlan Masud, who has been visiting the park daily for nine years, also wrote a letter to Elahi and demanded action against the contractors. In his letter, Masud identified various problems such as the lack of visible entry fee notices, frauds on the entry ticket and missing park fences.

Lack of visible entry fee displays

Masud wrote in his letter that there is a small board behind the grills of the F-10 entry gate which displays Rs5 as the parking/entry fee for a car (people can enter free of charge). The board, however, is not readily visible, making it easy for the staff of contractors Chaudhary Waqar and Chaudhary Yasir Langa (as displayed on the receipt) to charge Rs10 from unsuspecting visitors.

When confronted, they make lame excuses such as not having any change. “The gate in front of the PAF colony does not have a board displayed neither are any boards displayed at the F-8 and G-9 gates,” he noted.

Frauds on the entry receipt

“The given entry ticket has the parking fee displayed in tiny font. Moreover, the proprietor’s staff write the car number over the amount to be charged in very dark coloured ink,” he said.

“The tickets are returned on the way out, so people usually do not notice. I would suggest to the CDA to give a mandatory design guideline for entry fee receipts which carries the CDA logo and puts an end to such frauds,” he added.

“I would also like to understand the point of charging parking fee by a proprietor who is not responsible for car theft or providing any other service,” he said.

The case of missing fences

Grills have been stolen along the park’s perimeter from F-10 towards Blue Area. “Not only is this negligence on part of the park guards, it also exposes visitors to view,” Masud noted.

When contacted, Directorate of CDA Parks in-charge Asif Majeed said that the park did not come under his directorate’s control, adding that even he did not understand why that was the case.

PMO officials said that the parking fee issue was beyond their domain and claimed that they were already opposed to the practice. They blamed the DMA for awarding controversial tenders to corrupt people.

DMA Director Mansoor Ahmad Khan was not available for a comment despite repeated attempts to contact him. 

Published in The Express Tribune, May 20th, 2011.

COMMENTS (1)

Umayr Masud | 12 years ago | Reply Lets hope a signboard appears in front of all the 4 gates after this news item :) Good Job Tribune
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