A private housing society moves the Supreme Court requesting the recovery of the money it had spent on doing Capital Development Authority’s (CDA) job.
The Multi-Professional Cooperative Housing Society (MPCHS) developed land in the northern strip of Sector E-11 and is now claiming the expenditure from the civic agency, it was learnt.
Since the fund-strapped civic body does not have the financial power to entertain this request, the CDA, in its top level meeting on Monday, decided to sale valuable land to clear its liabilities. The authority has also decided to review all joint venture projects in the light of the recent judgment of the apex court on northern strip of the sector, Member Finance Saeedur Rehman told The Express Tribune.
The strip in E-11 was developed by MPCHS, a private housing society, with land share formula with CDA but the apex court in its judgment declared the deal “non-transparent, sham, inoperative and ineffective”. The court allowed the housing society to pursue the legal way to claim recovery of the amount it had invested in the project.
Therefore, a special meeting of CDA Board was held under the supervision of Imtiaz Inayat Elahi, Chairman CDA, to formulate a strategy for taking over the Northern Strip of E-11 in the light of Supreme Court’s decision.
“We will follow the departmental procedure while returning the invested amount to the housing society,” said Member Finance. He said that in the next board meeting formalities to return the invested amount to the housing society would be finalised.
A press statement issued after the board meeting holds, “It was also decided to dispose of commercial and residential plots through an open auction in transparent manner. It is expected that CDA would earn handsome amount through sale of these plots in the near future,” the statement read without mentioning the reason for the auction of the land at this juncture.
But the strategy was finalised when the cash-strapped authority was under the burden of billions of rupees liabilities, an official said.
The board decided to hold an auction ‘exhibition’ of its valuable-land at the end of this month, he informed.
The authority has earned Rs7.36 billion from the sale of residential and commercial plots since January 2008. The authority collected Rs4215 million through the auction of residential plots and Rs3146 million from the sale of commercials plots.
The official said that details of all the projects and joint ventures for the development of new sectors in the capital city are being collected. “The agreement with a Chinese company for the development of sector 1-15 would not be affected. However, the joint venture for the development of sector C-14 with Habib Rafique would be reviewed,” he said.
Ramzan Sajid, spokesperson of the civic body, said, “It was necessary to take such step at this stage because it will set a precedent for the future agreements too.”
Ramzan Sajid said that the chairman had directed to establish a picket/check post to ensure the safety of already developed infrastructure and street lights, in the Northern Strip. The chairman also directed that the relevant officers should ensure the implementation of the Supreme Court’s decision in letter and spirit, he said.
CDA’s Director General Planning Ghulam Sarwar Sindu, who is also mastermind of the project, told The Express Tribune that the housing society had completed development work but following the court decision, the possession of the area has been taken back from the society.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 19th, 2011.
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