Veiled beauty: The other side of encroachments
Numerous plots given to private parties for beatification have essentially been encroached.
The lawn set up on the vacant plot adjacent to Salim Saifullah’s house. PHOTO: EXPRESS
ISLAMABAD:
Hundreds of plots, once officially sanctioned for the capital’s “beautification”, but now illegally encroached, in Islamabad’s posh sectors can make big bucks for the Capital Development Authority.
But that will only happen if the agency can overcome political and bureaucratic pressure and get these plots vacated by the influential encroachers who have built sprawling lawns and private parks on these plots over the years.
The plots were originally allotted under legal cover by the CDA to allow landowners near seasonal streams to support beautification of the city.
Unsurprisingly, akin to several other CDA policies, the beautification policy was also misused. The authority gave in to various parties and started giving permissions for lucrative, sellable plots which did not fall under the category of land given for the purpose of beautification.
“These plots are not given on ownership basis. Allottees are only granted permission to grow plants or trees there without erecting any sort of structure,” said a planning wing official.
The last two years have seen several dozen cases where such allotments were withdrawn and the CDA no longer gives up land to private groups for beautification.
Under the rules, the authority can take the possession of such sites whenever they want, the official said while expressing his doubts over the CDA’s ability to retake possession from powerful allottees.
One such allottee is Salim Saifullah. A former senator from the PML-Q, he was given a 1,000-square-yard plot some years ago under the beautification policy. The plot is located next to his house, currently occupied by his son, Assad.
In the recent past, the CDA put that plot in the residential plot auction list twice, but both times it was excluded from the list just hours before the auction proceedings, which CDA officials said was because the allottee refused to vacate the plot.
On the front side of the plot, a parking area has been developed, behind which there is a lawn. The estimated value of the plot is over a hundred million rupees.
When contacted, Assad Saifullah said the CDA was in dire need of money nowadays and to fulfill their needs, they are converting the green areas of Islamabad into residential areas. He said the CDA now wants to sell the plot given to his father for beautification. “We have been looking into the issue, let’s see what happens,” the younger Saifullah said.
Meanwhile, Shahid Rafi, a former bureaucrat, was also given a plot in Sector F-7 under the same policy in 2007. Rafi has developed a private lawn on the plot.
“There are three functional sewage lines passing under the plot given to me. Technically, erecting a structure over this land is impossible,” Rafi informed, adding that he developed lawn after compacting the land and also obtained a completion certificate from the CDA after developing it.
When informed about the CDA proposal, he said the land belongs to the CDA and the agency can take back whenever they want.
“If the CDA thinks the land is useable, I will be more than happy to hand it over,” Rafi added.
There are an estimated 500 plots within Islamabad’s sectors that have been encroached upon in the name of beautification, and plot holders flatly refuse to vacate them, a CDA official said.
He said that in sectors F-6 and F-7 alone, over 200 such lucrative plots of varying sizes are being used as private lawns by allottees.
He said estimates suggest that the CDA can raise around Rs40 billion by gradually auctioning these encroached plots, but unfortunately, interest groups within the CDA and residents who are benefitting with the connivance of CDA officials always hinder any such move.
CDA Environment Member Sanaullah Aman said the planning wing of the CDA process such requests, adding that as far as the environment wing is concerned, permission has not been granted in any cases during the last three years.
He said only that the land given to private individuals for landscaping would usually be the bank of a seasonal stream, ravines or deep depressions which are of no utility. Planned or flat land is not supposed to be given, he added.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 24th, 2014.
Hundreds of plots, once officially sanctioned for the capital’s “beautification”, but now illegally encroached, in Islamabad’s posh sectors can make big bucks for the Capital Development Authority.
But that will only happen if the agency can overcome political and bureaucratic pressure and get these plots vacated by the influential encroachers who have built sprawling lawns and private parks on these plots over the years.
The plots were originally allotted under legal cover by the CDA to allow landowners near seasonal streams to support beautification of the city.
Unsurprisingly, akin to several other CDA policies, the beautification policy was also misused. The authority gave in to various parties and started giving permissions for lucrative, sellable plots which did not fall under the category of land given for the purpose of beautification.
“These plots are not given on ownership basis. Allottees are only granted permission to grow plants or trees there without erecting any sort of structure,” said a planning wing official.
The last two years have seen several dozen cases where such allotments were withdrawn and the CDA no longer gives up land to private groups for beautification.
Under the rules, the authority can take the possession of such sites whenever they want, the official said while expressing his doubts over the CDA’s ability to retake possession from powerful allottees.
One such allottee is Salim Saifullah. A former senator from the PML-Q, he was given a 1,000-square-yard plot some years ago under the beautification policy. The plot is located next to his house, currently occupied by his son, Assad.
In the recent past, the CDA put that plot in the residential plot auction list twice, but both times it was excluded from the list just hours before the auction proceedings, which CDA officials said was because the allottee refused to vacate the plot.
On the front side of the plot, a parking area has been developed, behind which there is a lawn. The estimated value of the plot is over a hundred million rupees.
When contacted, Assad Saifullah said the CDA was in dire need of money nowadays and to fulfill their needs, they are converting the green areas of Islamabad into residential areas. He said the CDA now wants to sell the plot given to his father for beautification. “We have been looking into the issue, let’s see what happens,” the younger Saifullah said.
Meanwhile, Shahid Rafi, a former bureaucrat, was also given a plot in Sector F-7 under the same policy in 2007. Rafi has developed a private lawn on the plot.
“There are three functional sewage lines passing under the plot given to me. Technically, erecting a structure over this land is impossible,” Rafi informed, adding that he developed lawn after compacting the land and also obtained a completion certificate from the CDA after developing it.
When informed about the CDA proposal, he said the land belongs to the CDA and the agency can take back whenever they want.
“If the CDA thinks the land is useable, I will be more than happy to hand it over,” Rafi added.
There are an estimated 500 plots within Islamabad’s sectors that have been encroached upon in the name of beautification, and plot holders flatly refuse to vacate them, a CDA official said.
He said that in sectors F-6 and F-7 alone, over 200 such lucrative plots of varying sizes are being used as private lawns by allottees.
He said estimates suggest that the CDA can raise around Rs40 billion by gradually auctioning these encroached plots, but unfortunately, interest groups within the CDA and residents who are benefitting with the connivance of CDA officials always hinder any such move.
CDA Environment Member Sanaullah Aman said the planning wing of the CDA process such requests, adding that as far as the environment wing is concerned, permission has not been granted in any cases during the last three years.
He said only that the land given to private individuals for landscaping would usually be the bank of a seasonal stream, ravines or deep depressions which are of no utility. Planned or flat land is not supposed to be given, he added.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 24th, 2014.