Senate questions the non-development of agro-farms

CDA slacks in acting on non-compliance of agro-farms in Islamabad.

ISLAMABAD: The Capital Development Authority (CDA) has taken back just three of the 680 agricultural farmlands (agro-farms) allotted to different people in the past 10 years, despite several violations. Nawabzada Ghazanfar Gul, Minister in-charge of the Cabinet Division, told this to the senate on Friday in response to Senator Professor Khurshid Ahmad’s query of whether CDA had done anything about the non-compliance of agro-farms in Islamabad.

All agro-farms have to be developed within three years of allotment as per CDA rules. Once fully developed, these farms should have been capable of providing Islamabad with a fresh daily supply of poultry, vegetables, fruits and flowers etcetera.

However, an audit report recently released by the Auditor General of Pakistan revealed that more than 80 per cent of the farms had failed to meet their allotment terms. Plot allotment can be cancelled in case of continued non-compliance.

The CDA’s estate wing requested that the Senate give them some time to prepare an adequate response to Senator Ahmad’s question. A CDA representative said they were currently collecting data to make a report on the number of violations, fines imposed and actions taken by CDA against violators.

An official within CDA, asking not to be named, told The Express Tribune that “a large majority” of the agro-farms were violating CDA’s terms and conditions.

Many of these farms have been allotted to influential people that include former president General (Retired) Pervez Musharraf, former prime minister Shaukat Aziz, Senator Talha Mehmood, Justice Javed Iqbal, Senator Wasim Sajad, Saifur Rehman (close aid of Musharraf), former senator Naheed
Khan, former interior minister Wasim Shahzad, retired Inter-Services Intelligence officials and Hafeez Pirzada (a prominent lawyer), among other top military and civilian officers.

Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Chaudhry also took suo moto notice of this issue
back in 2007 and directed CDA to carry out a comprehensive survey of the agro-farms so that wrong allotments could be cancelled.

Minister Gul told the Senate that CDA Land Department cancelled the allotment of three farms, collectively
worth Rs80 million, after National Accountability Bureau found that they had been allotted against fake documents.

These three plots belonged to Manzoor Hussain, Bagh Kalan and Sambal Korak. After the cancellation of allotments, CDA also launched an enquiry into the matter.

Member Estate CDA, S M Farooqi said, “We serve show-cause and violation notices to the violators and have made considerable recoveries in this connection so far.”

He said that his department continued to identify illegal aspects of the construction in houses and fine the violators.

However, he added, the department removed objections after imposing fines because the violations were a compoundable illegal practice.

Such an offence is pardoned after fines and penalties are paid.

Farooqi said if the violations do not exceed a certain limit, then CDA condones them after collecting fines. “However we show no leniency to those that cross the line,” he said, quoting the example of Manzoor Hussain, who got an agro-farm from CDA on fake documents.

Farooqi added that in addition to cancellation of the allotment, CDA also sacked  officials involved in the matter of illegal allotments.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 25^th, 2010.