Illegal housing societies prey on salaried class

Pindi sees mushroom growth of illicit projects owing to weaker laws

RAWALPINDI:

The whole of their lives, people especially the salaried class toil hard to make ends meet and save each penny to have a reasonable abode towards the end of their career. But their desires of having a house are dashed to the ground when they fall prey to fraudulent elements attached to the real estate business who befool the people by convincing them to invest their hard-earned money in housing societies, either lacking legal status or not having enough land.

Unfortunately, owing to weaker laws and their poor implementation, these mafias continue to flourish with a mushroom growth in Rawalpindi district as statistics show that out of over 550 housing schemes, around 79 have got all the legalities completed, while the rest are either fake or lack the required NOCs.

Though, the regulator has identified the illegal housing schemes, but could not initiate action against them as the relevant law calls for three years imprisonment and a fine of Rs0.5 million against unauthorised and illegal housing schemes.

When contacted, RDA spokesperson Hafiz Irfan said the authority was working to control such societies and in this regard, it had uploaded a list of “legal and illegal housing societies on its website” so that people could be saved from investing in illegal schemes.

“Strict action under the law is being taken against such societies including demolishing of illegal buildings and issuing of notices to their administrations. As many as 42 legal notices were issued besides lodging nine FIRs against the rules’ violators during the last five months. Their 17 offices were sealed while 35 complaints in FIA Cyber Crime Wing for registration of FIRs were launched this year,” he said.

But, the ground situation is different as the department issues notices and gets FIRs registered against such societies when they seek electricity and gas connections. These illegal housing schemes are rampant in Rawalpindi, Gujjar Khan, Taxila, Wah, Murree, Kotli Sattian and other areas.

“Majority of illegal housing schemes presently under our control were established by the administrations of the district and tehsil councils,” Hafiz Irfan said.

“The RDA had requested Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) to refrain private TV channels from airing advertisements of illegal housing societies,” he said.

Moreover, he said, the Governor of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) and the Director General of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) had also been approached to block bank, and social media accounts of such schemes.

Another matter of concern is establishing housing schemes in the suburbs of Rawalpindi city and other areas on fertile agricultural land that would have cascading effects on food security in years to come.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, June 12^th, 2023.