Capital development authority at work
PHOTO: ONLINE
Officials in the Capital Development Authority (CDA) told The Express Tribune that they were already in the process of revising the master plan of the city.
In the meantime, he said, the authority will be abandoned its plans of regularising all illegal constructions in Bani Gala until a study – to be conducted by the environmental commission directed by a larger, three-member bench of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) — is complete.
The CDA officials said that civic body would also weigh the procedures to implement IHC orders in collaboration with the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) administration.
Before demolishing illegal constructions in the two areas, as directed by the court, officials said that the authority — in a first step — will try and stop on-going work on illegal constructions.
Moreover, it will strictly ensure that no further structures are built there anymore.
“We will hopefully prepare a plan of action to implement the IHC orders within two or three days,” CDA Member Planning Asad Mehboob Kiyani told The Express Tribune.
On Monday, a larger bench of the IHC had declared that houses or any other building constructed in the upscale Bani Gala or in Sector E-11 (Golra Revenue Estate) in violation of the Islamabad’s master plan were illegal and liable to be demolished.
The bench divided petitions against high-rise buildings and other buildings of commercial nature in the capital into category-A (Bani Gala) and category-B (Sector E-11).
One of the petitioners in category A contended that a respondent had started work on a high-rise building near the Kurang Road in Bani Gala without obtaining the requisite approval from the Capital Development Authority (CDA).
Another petitioner in Category-B told the court that the respondents have either built or are in the process of starting construction work of different buildings in Sector E-11, however, most of the proposed buildings are of a commercial nature.
“We allow these petitions and declare that construction of houses or buildings of any nature, whether in the Golra Revenue Estate (Sector E-11) or the area comprising Bani Gala which have been or are intended to be constructed in violation of the master plan, the Ordinance of 1960, the Zoning Regulations of 1992, the Ordinance of 1966 and the Wildlife Ordinance of 1979, as the case may be, are illegal, without lawful authority and jurisdiction and thus liable to be demolished as mandated under the Ordinance of 1960 and the regulations made thereunder,” the bench held in the judgment.
Moreover, it noted that none of the respondents has been able to place on record any document which would establish the legality of their building.
The IHC bench had subsequently directed the CDA to revise Islamabad’s master plan and assess its efficacy, keeping in view the imminent danger and risk in the context of environmental degradation and climatic change.
The bench had also directed the federal government to take steps for constituting a commission comprising professional experts of international repute in the field of town planning, environmental management and finance. This commission will make recommendations to the federal government. The court also had directed the Chief Commissioner Islamabad to assist the CDA in ensuring that no building or house is built in any area of Islamabad without CDA’s permission.
Earlier this year, the CDA had decided to regularise existing construction in Bani Gala under an amnesty scheme, with Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan directed to submit the fees to regularise his palatial mansion in Bani Gala for which they could not present a verifiable no-objection certificate.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 11th, 2018.
COMMENTS
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ