Anti-encroachment: CDA levels five nurseries along Park Road

Three nurseries partially demolished after their owners obtain stay from court

ISLAMABAD: The Capital Development Authority (CDA) bulldozed five illegal nurseries and partially razed  three others along Park Road on Wednesday.

However, the operation was halted after one of the nursery owners obtained a stay order from court.

The enforcement and environment directorates of CDA carried out the operation to recover land apparently on orders of CDA Chairman and Islamabad Mayor Sheikh Anser Aziz after their lease were cancelled. The operation started at 10 am as 150 officials of the directorates and enforcement police used heavy machinery, including dozers, to demolish the nurseries.

Buildings, rooms and residential quarters constructed on plot number 4 to 8 have been completely levelled. Work was continuing on plot number 10 when Raza Rehman, the lessee, managed to obtain stay order from the court and the operation had to be
stopped midway.

According to CDA land records, plot number four had been leased to one Najeeb Mehmood; plot number five had been leased to Brigadier (retired) Muhammad Saddiq, plot number six was with Hameed Khurshid, plot number seven is in the possession of Hameeda Bukhari, and plot number eight has been leased out in the name of  Anis Attaur Rehman.

The CDA had cancelled their provisional lease allotments. However, these allottees had taken stay orders from a court in a bid to maintain the status quo.

The CDA  has, however, left a number of other illegal nurseries intact because their owners have obtained stay orders against the authority from various courts of law.

The body, however, said that they had conducted the operation after all stay orders on the respective plots were vacated and legal formalities had been completed.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 1^st, 2016.