Many were astonished when CDA announced in August 2010 that the authority acknowledged a total of 7,096 as affected people from the two villages. PHOTO: FILE
The findings of a Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) inquiry into compensation paid to residents of two villages have left the capital’s civic agency unimpressed.
The Capital Development Authority (CDA) has expressed dissatisfaction over the FIA’s findings relating to awards for Kuri and Rehara villages announced in August 2010.
Sources informed The Express Tribune that the FIA had deemed as fake 3,674 out of the total 7,096 claimants acknowledged by the authority as affected people from Kuri and Rehara Villages. Affected person status entitled them to benefits under CDA rules.
The FIA has submitted its lists of genuine and fake “affected persons” to the authority.
“The FIA shared its findings with the CDA and termed a large number of affected people as fake. However, some concerned CDA officials are of the view that FIA findings are flawed, as most of the genuine affected persons have been ignored while several others were listed as being entitled to benefits under CDA rules,” Chairman CDA Syed Tahir Shahbaz said.
Shahbaz said the CDA would not rely solely on the FIA’s findings due to several lacunas pointed out by CDA’s officials concerned. When asked about the “lacunas”, the chairman said the Estate member would brief a senate committee on the issue today (Wednesday).
Estate Member Shaista Sohail was contacted but was not available for comment.
FIA initiated investigations into the Kuri Village scam in December 2010 after taking custody of the records of plots allotment to affected persons under the award list.
The CDA had announced the awards for Kuri and Rehara villages in August 2010. Many were astonished when CDA announced that the authority acknowledged a total of 7,096 as affected people from the two villages.
“At the time of the initial award announced in 1966, there were 940 houses in Kuri and 131 in Rehara, but the award announced in 2010 stated the number of affected people as 7,096,” an official of state management wing of the authority said.
The CDA announced awards for land acquisition in Kuri and Rehara village in 1966, 1968, 1969 and 1971, but each time it failed to implement them. Almost 40 years later, the CDA announced another award worth Rs 1.128 billion in August 2010 for taking over built-up-properties.
Relying on the results of award list, in 2010 the CDA issued a total of 3,976 plots allotment letters in the names of the affected people. Out of these, some 1,200 allotment letters were issued in a three-day period.
But after the scam came to light, then-CDA Chairman Imtiaz Inayat Elahi on December 27, 2010 declared all 3,976 allotment letters invalid.
Nine officials including former Land and Rehabilitation Director Dr Wasim Shamshad, Naib Tehsildar Mian Aftab, former Assistant Director Sheikh Abdur Rashid, acting Admin Officer Ali Asghar, Sub-Engineer Khalid Khokhar, Assistant Director Technical Ali Mumtaz, Naib-Tehsildar Ghulam Ali, Gardawar Ghaniur Rehman and Patwari Shahid Mehmood were nominated in the FIR registered by the authority.
Former Director Land and Rehabilitation Dr Waseem Shamshad, a DMG group officer, was suspended by the Establishment Division in 2011 based on the recommendations of a two-member CDA inquiry committee.
However, the Establishment Division then conducted its own inquiry and imposed the token penalty of censure on Dr Waseem Shamshad. Shamshad is currently the Economic Affairs deputy secretary. Further investigations into the scam unearthed massive irregularities like double allotment of plots, missing files, incomplete files, missing documents and attachment of counterfeit documents with forged signatures in some files.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 24th, 2013.
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