Park Enclave plot transfers: CDA stopped in its tracks over ‘rigged’ balloting

NAB restrains civic agency, orders it to give presentation on irregularities.


Danish Hussain July 16, 2013
The accountability watchdog has also asked for a detailed presentation on Tuesday relating to the flawed plot balloting process. PHOTO: FILE

ISLAMABAD:


The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Monday restrained the Capital Development Authority (CDA) from transferring plots in Park Enclave after discovering that certain influential buyers could be among the transfers’ potential beneficiaries.


Park Enclave --- a housing colony launched by the CDA in 2011 --- has since not seen much development because the civic agency has failed to meet several deadlines relating to infrastructure and other work.



The CDA’s Estate Wing received a letter from NAB authorities on Monday directing it to immediately ban plot transfers which the civic agency had initiated two weeks ago in Park Enclave, said a CDA official requesting anonymity.

During this period, around six to seven plots have been transferred.

The official added that the accountability watchdog has also asked for a detailed presentation on Tuesday (today) relating to the flawed plot balloting process and changes to the housing colony’s original layout plan.

The CDA has issued a circular and a team of officials will go to NAB headquarters on Tuesday to give the presentation, said the official.

NAB’s latest gripe with the CDA centres on the civic agency’s inaction over its past indiscretions, particularly the balloting process wherein politicians, journalists and other influential persons have been given prime plots.

“Instead of addressing the irregularities, the CDA quickly initiated plot transfers,” a senior NAB official said.



Under CDA rules, some residential or commercial plots can be transferred as long as all outstanding dues including the plots’ total costs are cleared in the civic agency’s records.

However, in the case of Park Enclave, the CDA Board had decided to initiate transfers after receiving only the down payments and a couple of installments.

NAB Spokesperson Ramzan Sajid told The Express Tribune said that NAB’s Awareness and Prevention Wing had taken up the Park Enclave issue after reports of rigged plot balloting surfaced.

He said he was unaware if the CDA had been restrained from transferring plots in Park Enclave.



NAB is also investigation changes in the project’s original layout plan, which the CDA has modified by carving out more plots and reducing the initial 60 per cent green area requirement for the housing colony.

According to a CDA official, the civic agency’s new chairman Nadeem Hasan Asif does not seem to be paying enough attention to the matter. “While the chairman has focused on several ongoing projects and inspected residential sectors, he seems least concerned with the development of Park Enclave, which he has not even visited yet,” he said.

The CDA’s Engineering Wing recently submitted the project’s PC-I --- according to which the estimated cost of developing the housing project is Rs3.7 billion --- for approval by the CDA-Development Working Party.

Apart from this, the construction of around 80 per cent of the housing colony’s boundary wall is the only notable achievement the CDA has made in terms of developing the area.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 16th, 2013. 

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