CDA hands US Embassy ‘clean chit’ in illegal expansion case

Report by deputy attorney general in SC notes no by-laws violated by new structures

ISLAMABAD: The Capital Development Authority (CDA) has apparently given a clean chit to United States Embassy for alleged illegal construction in the capital.

Submitting before the Supreme Court over illegal constructions in the capital, the civic agency told the top court that the US diplomatic mission had not violated any of its building by-laws.

In 2009, the Wattan Party had filed a petition in the apex court and asked the federation, through the cabinet secretary, for the foreign affairs ministry and the CDA to explain why 18 acres of land had been sold to the US.



The party’s representative, Barrister Zafarullah, had contended that the US mission in Islamabad already had 38 acres of land and that there was no need to allot an additional 18 acres to it. He further alleged that a hotel was also being constructed inside the embassy which put national security at risk.

Last year on March 21, the apex court had sought a written explanation over the petitioner’s allegations regarding the construction of a hotel inside the Embassy.

Recently, Deputy Attorney General Sohail Mahmood had submitted a report in the apex court on behalf of the federal government.

In the report, he stated that CDA Building Control Section Deputy Director Rahim Khan Bakhsh along with concerned assistant director, building inspector and representative of the US Embassy had visited the under-construction building on June 20, 2016, and again on September 1, 2016, to ascertain the actual, on-ground position of the site.

The report added that five blocks had been completed as per the building plans approved by the CDA. Moreover, it added that the completed building was occupied and conforming to its stated use – as  offices.

It further said that work was in progress on office blocks towards Club Road and three residential blocks with a recreational pool as per approvals granted by the CDA.

Last year, the interior ministry in its reply had stated that expansion of the US Embassy was a matter of bilateral interest and cannot be dictated merely on hearsay. The interior ministry’s reply had stated that the matter had been taken up with security agencies and contended that the allegation of throwing Pakistan into a proxy of bigger power, was flimsy and sketchy.



“In the current era, there is hardly any nation or state which can stay aloof from the evolving situation in their respective region. Pakistan, being a responsible state, is surely capable of steering the things as per national interest,” the interior ministry had stated.

Moreover, the ministry further stated that rumours of leasing out 700,000 hectares of agriculture land to Qatar and other Arab countries would only be done after the concerned departments complete their work before any such deal, if any, is made.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 23^rd, 2017.