Illegal building at F-9 Park likely to be turned into facilitation centre

Passports, licences, birth certificates to be processed under one roof.

ISLAMABAD:

The Capital Development Authority (CDA) has finally hit upon an idea to make use of a building illegally erected on park land by a non-governmental organisation, under the garb of promotion Pakistan’s ideology.

CDA chairman Nadeem Hassan Asif has identified the Nazria-e-Pakistan Council (NPC) building at Fatima Jinnah Park for the proposed establishment of a first Citizens Service Centre — wherein various services including national identity cards, passports, licences and birth certificates would be processed under one roof to facilitate people. The idea of establishing such centres across Islamabad was originally floated by Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan.

On July 4, Asif wrote a letter  to the interior minister requesting him to grant permission to utilise the building to facilitate the public. In the letter, Asif also mentioned his meeting with Islamabad’s chief commissioner, who he said had agreed to the CDA’s proposal. An excerpt from the Supreme Court’s (SC) detailed verdict on the famous F-9 Park case pertaining to the NPC building was also quoted in the letter.

“The CDA shall cancel the allotment of land to NPC, take over the premises and facilities and place the matter before the federal government to run affairs of Aiwan-e-Quaid and achieve the objectives for which it was established,” read the SC judgment.

Nisar was informed that the CDA had already cancelled the allotment of land and had referred the matter to the government to decide on how best to utilise the building in light of NPC’s agreement with the Ministry of Education.

Asif also said the building was easily accessible, had ample space for a car park and could house National Database and Registration Authority, passport and traffic police offices as well as a CDA office. The building, Asif added, had the capacity to host a large number of visitors daily.

Asif requested Nisar for permission to use the building to facilitate the public, who he said spent hours and huge sums of money on visiting various offices across Islamabad to get identity documents and licences. The CDA is still awaiting a response from Nisar, whose initial enthusiasm towards the idea seems to have waned over time.

When contacted, CDA Spokesperson Naeem Rauf confirmed the civic agency had not yet been granted permission to use the NPC building. The Interior Ministry spokesperson could not be reached despite several attempts to contact him.

A senior Islamabad Capital Territory administration official privy to the development said, “A CDA Environment Directorate building at F-9 Park has been identified if the interior ministry does not grant the civic agency permission to use the NPC building.”

Published in The Express Tribune, August 27^th, 2013.