First among equals: Navy made public housing land into private plots

CDA gave Pakistan Navy land to build flats for serving staff; military planners turned it into residential plots

ISLAMABAD:

The Capital Development Authority (CDA) has sustained revenue losses running into millions of rupees due to the illegal establishment of the Naval Housing Society in Islamabad. The housing society has been set up in violation of mutual agreements between the navy and CDA, and against land use laws.

Due to the violations committed by naval authorities, the CDA has refused to transfer ownership of the land to the Military Lands and Cantonment department, arguing that the society has been established in violation of the terms and conditions of the agreement the authority had signed with Pakistan Navy, according to an audit observation available with The Express Tribune.

Details mentioned in the audit para say that on August 15, 1995, CDA handed over possession of 10.06 acres in Sector F-11/1 to Pakistan Navy. An agreement to this effect was also signed at Naval Headquarters, Islamabad.

See no evil

The land was sold at a nominal price as it was meant for the construction of official residences for senior staff of a government department. This is not uncommon --- the CDA has given away large swathes of land at throwaway prices to government departments for the establishment of housing for government employees.

The layout plan of the project later submitted by the naval authorities with the CDA mentioned that the plot would be used to erect a five-storey building with numerous flats for naval staff. The layout plan was approved and the land was formally handed over to the department.

Later, the CDA did not bother to monitor development on the land, and naval officials converted the land use plan without the civic agency’s approval. Under the new plan, equal-sized residential plots were carved out under the name of a ‘Naval Housing Society’.

Tip of the iceberg

The plots were allotted to naval officers on ownership basis in sheer violation of the terms and conditions of the lease agreement the CDA had signed at Naval Headquarters. In addition, the plots were carved out in violation of CDA regulations but in line with cantonment regulations. The land, however, is not in a cantonment area.

Whose land is it anyway?

In 2009, naval authorities approached the CDA to request that land ownership be transferred to the Military Lands and Cantonment director general. This was unfeasible for the CDA.

“There are two major violations. First, the change in land use plans, and second, deviation of bylaws applicable in CDA-administered areas,” said a senior official of CDA’s Planning Wing.

Based on these two issues, the CDA refused to transfer the land.

The official said that soon after, naval authorities asked the CDA to regularise changes to the land use plan by announcing a one-time waiver of rules and regulations they had violated. The CDA official added that a similar one-time waiver was requested so that cantonment bylaws would override CDA regulations in the area.

The official added that the land was allotted to the navy at cut rates for the specific purpose of establishing a five-storey apartment building and it could not be transferred to individuals on ownership basis.

Tortoise or hare?

Audit authorities first pointed out the unauthorised use of land in July 2013. The CDA was asked to clarify the situation, but did not respond in a timely fashion.

Auditors observed that the planning wing was responsible for a loss of Rs 108.04 million --- the rate at which land was given in 1995. Now, the CDA has been directed to take action and recover the current market value of the land from the Pakistan Navy, along with the relevant penalty fees for the illegal ‘redesign’.

When approached on Wednesday, Pakistan Navy Public Relations Director General Commodore Ahmed Nadeem Bukhari told The Express Tribune he could not comment on the issue at the time, saying it would take him at least a day to reply after he had consulted the relevant departments.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 30^th, 2014.