Hitting where it hurts: CDA wants land use violators delisted

SECP agrees to review registrations of violators.

ISLAMABAD: The Capital Development Authority has taken an unusual step to address land use law violations by big businesses by asking the corporate regulator to investigate and possibly delist them.

The CDA has decided to engage Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) in its efforts to exert pressure on violators of land use norms in Islamabad.

The CDA, in future, plans to inform the SECP about firms or individuals registered with the SECP that are running businesses in residential units across Islamabad in violations of city rules and regulations that prohibit commercial activities in residential areas.

“Copies of the notices served on violators will also be dispatched to the SECP and will mention the nature of violation. The SECP has agreed that it will make the violations part of the company’s record and the owners of such businesses will be asked to justify why their registration with the SECP should not be reviewed in light of the violations,” CDA spokesperson Asim Khichi said.

The decision is part of the CDA’s newest anti-land use violation effort. In the first phase, multinationals and big local firms are being targeted.

“[The plan was] finalised after the CDA held a meeting with representatives of the SECP a few days ago,” Asim said.

He said it was part of recently devised multi-aspect approach following a recent court order to address the issue.

On June 7, the IHC vacated around 74 stay orders obtained by petitioners from civil courts after the CDA served final notices on them for engaging in commercial activities in residential areas.

Their cases had been pending in civil courts since 2001, after the CDA served notices and fined homeowners for non-conforming use.

Khichi said the decision to engage the SECP aimed at putting pressure on firms and individuals to move their businesses to commercial areas.

Elaborating on the plan, Khichi said that in the second phase, allied facilities including water, electricity, and gas connections for violating residential units would be cut off. The final phase would see the cancellation of CDA ownership agreements with owners who have sublet their homes to businesses or are directly operating them.

He added that the ownership agreements for some six houses had recently been cancelled by the CDA.

A CDA planning wing estimate said that 2,057 houses across Islamabad are being used for commercial purposes. Of these, 875 houses were being used by multinationals or major local firms.

“The number has now crossed 3,000. The last time the list was updated was 15 months ago,” said a senior official of the authority said.

A senior CDA official believes that it would be easy to target multinational firms in the first phase, although the violators also include embassies, non-governmental and intergovernmental organisations, political parties, foreign and domestic media outlets, guesthouses, salons, seminaries and shops. A large number of educational institutes, hostels, private hospitals and clinics are also listed in CDA records.

The embassies include Lebanon, Cuba, Czech Republic, Denmark, Greece, Ukraine, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Oman, Afghanistan, Romania, Bahrain, Jordan, South Africa and Brazil.

Meanwhile, the three political parties that dominate the centre and each of the provinces --- the PML-N, the PPP and the PTI, are also among the violators.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 7^th, 2014.