Nisar wants report on illegal filling station

Pump is allegedly owned by an associate of a former NA deputy speaker.


Danish Hussain July 09, 2013
The master plan for Islamabad does not identify any site along the Kashmir Highway for use as a filling station. PHOTO: FILE

ISLAMABAD:


After taking notice of a violation of the capital’s master plan, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan on Monday asked the Capital Development Authority (CDA) to furnish detailed report over an illegally constructed filling station within right of way of Kashmir Highway.


The master plan for Islamabad does not identify any site along the Kashmir Highway for use as a filling station. In fact, it has been constructed within an 800 foot area on the south side of Kashmir Highway where all construction is restricted, as per rules.

On Monday, the CDA was directed to submit a report over the grave violation and actions taken so far by the authority.

“It is a laudable action by the interior minister. However, he must also take notice of the army depot established on encroached CDA land along the same highway,” said a CDA Engineering Wing official.

He said that due to the presence of the army depot --- where condemned army vehicles are reassembled and refurbished for auction --- the authority has not awarded a contract for road widening of a roughly two kilometre stretch of the highway.



The depot is located between the Kashmir Highway toll plaza and the Motorway Interchange. The contractors engaged in the Kashmir Highway widening project are currently working on around eight kilometer of the 11.068 kilometre road.

A few days ago, CDA Chairman Nadeem Hassan Asif said the army depot issue would be settled through deliberation and mutual understanding.

Another CDA official commented that the Cabinet Division was legally entitled to seek inquiry reports from the CDA, as the civic agency was under the purview of the Cabinet Division rather than the Ministry of Interior.

Earlier, The Express Tribune had reported that the filling station was established during the PPP’s last tenure, and was owned by a business partner of former NA deputy speaker Faisal Kundi. In documents, one Qazi Imran is named as the owner of the pump, who, sources said, is a front man for the PPP leader. Kundi denied having anything to do with the pump

A source in the Planning Wing of the authority said the CDA Land Survey department had completed the demarcation of the Kashmir Highway. He said the department identified 400 feet on the north and 800 feet on the south side for “right-of-way”.

Under the rules, construction is prohibited in areas marked for “right-of-way”.

The official further said the Lands Directorate also visited the site on Monday and reported that the authority has only 250 feet on the north side of the highway as right-of-way area. The south side still has to be surveyed.

The report prepared by the Lands Directorate gives no details of the encroachments by private persons and CDA contractors on the north side, the official said, referring to the unaccounted 150 feet.

A senior CDA official said that in 2010, when construction of the petrol pump started, the city managers not only kept mum over the matter, but quietly lent support to the illegal construction work by laying water and sewerage lanes at the site. A water line was drawn from the main line supplying water to Sector G-13.

The CDA also installed street lights at the entrance and exit of the petrol pump, despite the fact that it is a completely private business venture.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 9th, 2013.

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