Danger zone: At least 12 housing societies surround new airport, Senators told

Commissioner Rawalpindi says 17,000 kanals of private development in 4-6km radius.

ISLAMABAD:

How close is too close? This was the question that propped up in the minds of Senators on Tuesday when the subject of housing societies located in the immediate vicinity of the under-construction new Islamabad airport was brought up.

A meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Cabinet Secretariat held at the Parliament House under the chair of Senator Kalsoom Perveen was briefed on the mushrooming growth of private housing societies close to the New Islamabad International Airport near Fateh Jang.

Commissioner Rawalpindi Zahid Saeed informed legislators that there exist no rules and regulations defining the minimum distance required to be kept between an airport and a human settlement.

The committee was informed that within a span of several months, 12 private housing societies, covering 17,000 kanals, had sprung up in a four to six kilometre radius of the under-construction airport.

Saeed also said there were no special rules for grant of no-objection certificates (NOC) to private land developers for the establishment of housing colonies in surrounding areas of airports and suggested that Parliament should draft legislation to define these limits.

He said the permissible height of buildings in surroundings of airports varies from 60 feet to 350 feet. The commissioner said the managements of housing societies are required to obtain additional NOCs from the Civil Aviation Authority as well as the local development agencies.

Out of 12, the commissioner said five housing societies had obtained NOCs from the Rawalpindi Development Authority while the rest did so from the Tehsil Municipal Administration in Fateh Jang.

Saeed informed that the development of a housing society, Top City, had been halted as it was located along the boundary wall of the airport.

Member planning and design of the Capital Development Authority, Waseem Ahmad Khan, said that almost half of the proposed airport area falls under the municipal limits of Rawalpindi district and the rest in Attock district.

Senator Perveen, who belongs to the Balochistan National Party-Awami, said the committee had earlier restrained development authorities from issuing NOCs to private societies from carrying out development near the new airport but no one obeyed their orders.

She said it was laudable that the concerned departments disallowed a private land developer from operating along the airport’s boundary.

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz Senator Mushahidullah Khan said security concerns around airports have increased after the recent attacks at the Peshawar and Karachi airports.

He suggested that CAA should be consulted and NOCs issued in the past be reviewed in light of provisions the authority’s regulations. Senator Saeeda Iqbal of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) observed that NOCs should be cancelled at once and citizens who bought plots in the housing societies must be given alternate plots.

PPP Senator Saifullah Bangash said the government should come up with stringent measures regarding the housing societies at the earliest as it would be next to impossible to displace people once construction of houses has begun.

The committee also discussed issues related to compensation payments in cash or residential plots to residents of Islamabad whose land was acquired decades ago by CDA were not remunerated.

Senator Perveen said members of the committee on would hold a protest camp at CDA headquarters to pressure it to make the compensation.

“The protest camp will continue until the payment of compensation to the last affected person of all the sectors developed in Islamabad,” she announced, adding though the civic agency acquired the natives’ land four decades ago it has yet to pay them in entirety.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 9^th, 2014.