Lapse of 30 years: Allottees of Sector I-12 demand possession of plots

Say delay breach of trust with people waiting for a govt department to deliver on its promise

ISLAMABAD: Exasperated and literally fed up with the apathetic attitude of Capital Development Authority (CDA), scores of allottees of Sector I-12, who have been denied possession of their plots held a meeting on Saturday at Sangam Market I-8/3.

They expressed their concerns over the long delay in the possession of their plots.  CDA has not handed over the possession of the plots to the allottees despite a lapse of over 30 years, on different pretexts.

Tahir Mahmood, an allottee said: “CDA has been playing a foul game by ignoring the low paid people by not handing over possession of plots in Sector I-12. Despite the importance of housing, it generally receives very low priority in CDA’s policies and programmes. The civic agency has completely disappointed the people living in Islamabad.” He said that the delay in development was breach of trust of people who had since been waiting for a government department to deliver on its promise.

It is found that housing agencies including CDA, PHA and FGEHF are neither building fast enough to meet demand nor cheaply enough to reach the poor. As a consequence, costly private housing societies have emerged in the city. In Islamabad DHA, Bahria Town, and other private schemes have been launched, but they are out of the reach of the middle income group.

Khumar Gul, another allottee said: “We are middle-income, salaried individuals who have invested our hard earned money into Sector I-12 to have an adequate shelter but unfortunately nothing has been done on ground for the redressal of miseries of the allottees so far. A concerted effort by the government has not been able to meet the growing demand for urban housing, especially that market segment accessible to the urban poor.”

Zeeshan Sheikh said that 30 long years was a lifetime and most of the allottees had died and their next generation too was now old. Despite the political sloganeering, serious and concerted efforts to address the issue is non-existent. Till now all we have got from the authority is empty promises and deadlines, which have failed to be met,” he lamented.

Allottees were seeking chief justice’s intervention for early development of the sector. 

Published in The Express Tribune, July 15^th, 2018.