Housing societies and CDA
100 private housing societies being built, or already built, in the federal capital may be illegal
In what appears to be an all-too familiar trope, it has emerged that as many as 100 private housing societies being built, or already built, in the federal capital may be illegal since they have failed to obtain the no-objection certificates from the apex civic agency of the city or have had their layout plans passed by the relevant departments.
With the population of Islamabad more than double over the past two decades, the demand for housing has gone through the roof, making housing societies a lucrative business. This, coupled with the apathy from those responsible for regulating construction in the city, means there has been a haphazard, mushroom growth of housing societies and high-rises across the city which more or less ripped the master plan to shreds.
Officials in the Capital Development Authority (CDA), who have looked the other way for years allowing these illegal societies to sprout, seem content to regularise these housing societies in exchange for hefty fees. They seem even less bothered with taking retrospective action against officials — retired or transferred — who allowed this to happen over the years, shrugging it off as the job of the top anti-corruption watchdog, the National Accountability Bureau.
This poses a problem for the public which has invested its hard-earned life savings to build houses in some of these schemes and now have to stare at the prospect of losing their homes just because the CDA did not do its job when it was supposed to. The starkest example of this is the current operation along the banks of the Korang Nullah.
What makes this worse is that the buck for CDA’s actions ultimately stops with the federal government since it is subordinate to the interior ministry. Let us hope that the government of ‘change’ works to bring some of that change to the CDA to make its management more effective and more vigilant against illegal activities.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 17th, 2018.
With the population of Islamabad more than double over the past two decades, the demand for housing has gone through the roof, making housing societies a lucrative business. This, coupled with the apathy from those responsible for regulating construction in the city, means there has been a haphazard, mushroom growth of housing societies and high-rises across the city which more or less ripped the master plan to shreds.
Officials in the Capital Development Authority (CDA), who have looked the other way for years allowing these illegal societies to sprout, seem content to regularise these housing societies in exchange for hefty fees. They seem even less bothered with taking retrospective action against officials — retired or transferred — who allowed this to happen over the years, shrugging it off as the job of the top anti-corruption watchdog, the National Accountability Bureau.
This poses a problem for the public which has invested its hard-earned life savings to build houses in some of these schemes and now have to stare at the prospect of losing their homes just because the CDA did not do its job when it was supposed to. The starkest example of this is the current operation along the banks of the Korang Nullah.
What makes this worse is that the buck for CDA’s actions ultimately stops with the federal government since it is subordinate to the interior ministry. Let us hope that the government of ‘change’ works to bring some of that change to the CDA to make its management more effective and more vigilant against illegal activities.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 17th, 2018.