Controversial lease: CDA lost Rs1.8b in Gun Club deal

Internal audit report blames the loss on the lack of proper lease agreement.

ISLAMABAD:

The Capital Development Authority (CDA) lost Rs1.8 billion in the land it allotted to the Islamabad Gun Club, according to an internal audit report.

The authority suffered the loss because it failed to chalk a proper lease agreement with the Gun Club, according to the report. A case pertaining to this allotment is already pending with the Supreme Court (SC).

The internal audit department has sough explanation from the land directorate on the issue, according to a senior CDA audit official.

CDA Deputy General Urban Planning Sarwar Sindhu denied reports that the deal has caused a loss of Rs1.8 billion. He said that the land in use by the Gun Club was given on lease to Pakistan Sports Board. He

He refrained from commenting on the issue, reasoning that the case is sub judice in the apex court.

The land, in Zone A, was awarded to the Gun Club at a “phenomenally” cheap rate of Rs10 million per acre, according to media reports
in August 2011, on which the SC had taken a suo motu notice.

In its response to the notice issued by the apex court, CDA had said that the club was originally allotted 44 acres, but later 28 additional acres were entrusted to the club as safety area for its shooting ranges.

The club was established in November 2002 by the Ministry of Sports, Culture and Tourism on land owned by the Pakistan Sports Board (PSB), the report had added.

Allocation of additional land, according to the CDA, was mandated by a proposal in 2000 to hold the 9th South Asian (SAF) Games in Islamabad.

Since there were no appropriate arrangements in place to host the shooting events, a steering committee decided to construct a state-of-the-art shooting facility in the capital, which would not only host the shooting events of the upcoming SAF Games, but also be utilised for hosting national and international competitions in future, the response added.

The SAF Games Secretariat thus requested the Pakistan Sports Board to make space for the Gun and Country Club.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 24^th, 2012.