Landgrabbing: ‘Don’t let Islamabad become another Karachi’

Senate committee worried by CDA’s property management; Kuri compensation, other projects discussed.

ISLAMABAD:

Landgrabbing in the capital came under the microscope in the Senate on Wednesday, as Senator Mushahidullah Khan ominously predicted that the capital would begin to mirror Karachi if the problem is not checked soon.

“Today, the situation in Islamabad is the same as it was in Karachi some two decades ago. Then, the Karachi Municipal Corporation overlooked it, and today, every public park in Karachi is under the control of landgrabbers,” the PML-N senator said during a meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Cabinet Secretariat and Capital Administration and Development.

The observation came after the city managers briefly informed the committee about encroachments and possession issues the authority has been confronting with a number of projects around the capital.

Senator Kalsoom Perveen chaired the meeting, where issues related to Park Enclave, Kuri Model Village and permission granted to Bahria Town for construction of an access road to Bahria Enclave were among the topics discussed.

In his agency’s defence, CDA Chairman Tahir Shahbaz, who took charge on October 2, 2012, sounded off the same answers from his last appearance before the committee — he needs some more time to streamline CDA affairs.

To every question on progress in long-neglected and delayed projects, the chairman simply smiled and confidently explained how upright a person he was and the number of difficulties he faced to “successfully cope with” the plethora of issues.

At one point, Senator Khan actually praised the chairman’s skills with the spoken word, saying, “You talk well. I am impressed by this quality of yours.”

The CDA chairman also recalled the recent past, when a number of MPs joined hands with illegal occupants of a predominantly Afghan slum for political gains and resisted the CDA’s attempts to retake possession of the land.

On hearing this, almost every member of the committee, including Senators Saeeda Iqbal, Kamil Ali Agha and Najma Hameed called for strengthening the CDA Enforcement Directorate and completely revamping the Law Directorate to tackle the burgeoning number of cases of illegal occupation and encroachment.

The CDA chairman informed that the law directorate has been computerised and that Abrar Mirza, a well-reputed officer from Punjab, would soon take charge as Enforcement DG.

Briefing the committee about the situation at Kuri Model Village, CDA Member Estate Shaista Sohail said the FIA had furnished two separate lists of fake affected people included in the CDA’s compensation award for Kuri Village, whcih were originally  announced in 2010.

“There is a requirement to resolve the issue, as the award announced by the CDA in 2010 enjoys the status of a judicial order,” Shaista Sohail said.

She added that the matter is now with the CDA Law Directorate, while adding that the authority would not rely on FIA findings alone and it had been decided that the issue would be resolved in phases.

She said in the first phase, affected people whose forefathers’ names were on the built-up property award announced in 1978 would be given preference.

She said such straightforward cases would be settled by July, adding that a summary had already been approved by the chairman.

The committee called the Park Enclave project a complete failure. “Lack of interest is evident. Whatever the CDA has claimed so
far about the project has just been face-saving,” Agha said.

Senator Kalsoom Perveen also directed the Bahria Town Planning and Design DG to appear before the committee within a week and bring along the no objection certificate and layout plan of Bahria Enclave and its extension.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 25^th, 2013.