Turning a blind eye: CDA’s refusal to take suggestions stalls projects

City boss assures compliance with Supreme Court orders in several cases.

ISLAMABAD:

By refusing to accept suggestions of its law department, the Capital Development Authority (CDA) is persistently failing to implement the Supreme Court’s orders on different pending cases, CDA officials told The Express Tribune on Tuesday.

The officials said that hundreds of cases of the civic authority are currently pending in courts because it refuses to accept guidance of the law directorate. They said that the apex court’s orders regarding retrieval of encroached land were not implemented according to the authority’s legal department’s suggestions, which is why the desired goals could not be achieved.

CDA’s legal department had advised the authority’s high-ups that the operation against land grabbers was bound to fail without cooperation of the capital police and the city administration. However, the authority did not pay heed to the suggestion of the legal department and public land in different areas, including Malpure Village, Kurri Model village and newly developing sectors of the capital, could not be recovered, sources said. They said that the SC specifically prohibited CDA to pay compensation to land grabbers, but the authority still offered packages to local residents to vacate encroached land.

When contacted, the CDA Chairperson Imtiaz Inayat Elahi assured that the apex court orders will be implemented “in its true spirit” and the public land will be recovered from illegal possession. He said that the “one-sided agreement” with the Indus Heritage Trust (IHT), a local NGO, for the Arts and Crafts Village project in Kurri Model Village is currently being reviewed under SC’s orders.

A senior official of the authority said, “It is strange that the CDA seems to sanction IHT’s complete disregard of the law, despite being fully aware of the procedures that have been set up to safeguard the interests of the project.” He alleged that a prominent restaurant in the model village has been awarded to one of the employees of the NGO without any defined terms.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 7^th, 2011.