Senate panel urges CDA to allow hospital in Chatta Bakhtawar

Lawmakers slam civic body for corruption, inability to crack down on illegal constructions

ISLAMABAD: A parliamentary panel on Tuesday exerted pressure on the civic body to grant permission for setting up a hospital in Chatta Bakhtawar area of the capital on the name former Senate chairman Muhammad Mian Soomro’s mother.

The Senate Standing Committee on Cabinet Secretariat met at the Parliament House on Tuesday with Senator Talha Mehmood in the chair.

During Tuesday’s meeting, Senator Mehmood directed the CDA to issue permission for setting up the charity hospital in Chatta Bakhtawar within a week.

Senator Kamil Ali Agha added that without issuing a prior notice, the hospital’s building had been termed as illegal by the CDA.

“CDA takes exemplary measures against those who do not offer bribes. Since bribes were not offered for the construction of a charity hospital, the CDA was creating hurdles,” Agha said.

Mehmood further chastised the civic body for harassing residents of the capital and told them to stop the practice.

“The CDA cancelled no-objection certificates (NoCs) of 103 illegal housing societies while poor people are worried [about their investments],” the senator said, adding that action must be taken against developers of these housing societies instead of the investors.

He further said that it was depressing that CDA officials did not work without taking a bribe, noting that CDA by-laws are ignored as the civic body issues allotment letters without taking possession of land.

“In terms of an institution, the CDA is a failed organisation,” the committee’s chairman remarked

He added that according to CDA rules, the authority could not ‘gift’ plots in sectors G-11 and I-8. Moreover, he said that in the past, a CDA officer used to issue documents while sitting at his home.

Senator Mohsin Aziz, the mover of the Real Estate Regulations and Development Bill, said that there was a vast difference between the jurisdictions of CDA and the Islamabad Capital Territory.

“Owners’ rights are not protected; the land mafia is active,” he lamented.

Senator Agha hoped that once the bill is approved, the land mafia would be controlled and investors’ interests would be protected.

After he pointed out that several multi-storey buildings were being built along the Islamabad Expressway, Senator Mehmood said that such high-rise buildings were also being constructed along the Kashmir Highway.

Senator Kulsoom Parveen said that people had invested millions of rupees in these private housing schemes and that the CDA should publish notices regarding illegal land and housing societies before they are developed.

Senator Shahi Syed said that there was a dire need for indiscriminate and merciless accountability in CDA.

“Constructions have been termed as illegal by the CDA in areas where the CDA’s rules and regulations did not exist until ten years ago,” Syed said.

CDA Member Planning Asad Kiyani told the committee that while laws to regulate all of these practices were present, they have not been implemented in letter and spirit.

Referring to the case of the Safa Gold Mall, whose lease was cancelled last week, Kiyani said that some CDA officers involved in the violations have now been arrested by the national accountability bureau.

He further said that they have been carrying out operations against encroachers in different parts of the city.

Talking about the bill, Kiyani said that once the law is passed, CDA by-laws would need to be reviewed.

The bill was deferred until Monday. The committee also deliberated over amendments bill regarding the Gun & Country and Islamabad Clubs.

The mover of the bill, Senator Azam Swati, suggested that two members each from Senate and the National Assembly should be included in Board of Governors of these clubs.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 22^nd, 2017.