New policy aims to give significant time to owners to shift their businesses to commercial areas. PHOTO: NNI
The country’s top judges have expressed displeasure over the city managers’ discriminatory policy with regard to operation against encroachers as well as misuse of residential houses for commercial purposes.
A three-judge bench of the apex court, headed by Chief Justice Jawwad S Khawaja, asked the Capital Development Authority (CDA) to adopt a uniform policy regarding action against the violators.
On the one hand, CDA is giving concession to elite class by relaxing its rules regarding construction of buildings on agriculture farms but on the other hand, it is taking coercive action against the poor residing in informal settlements, the judges remarked.
The government has relaxed rules for the owners of farmhouses, who have constructed buildings on more than 4,500 square feet in violation of Islamabad’s master plan, observed the CJ Khawaja.
Read: Over a hundred homes bulldozed in capital’s slum
Another member of the bench Justice Qazi Faez Isa said that CDA was the worst running organization in the country. Justice Dost Muhammad Khan asked CDA chairman Maroof Afzal why his agency allows violations of the master plan.
Ali Raza, counsel for the chairman, ensured the court that CDA would take action against all encroachers without discrimination.
During the hearing, Raza admitted that offices of Islamabad police and Motorway police chiefs as well as different political parties are still working in residential areas.
New policy
The CDA’s new policy to deal with the issue of non-conforming use of residential units grants temporary permissions – ranging from six months to two years, depending on nature of business – to owners of houses to remove the violation from their respective premises.
The policy says that it “aims to give significant time to the owners of businesses to shift their respective establishments to commercial areas” and that in line with the Supreme Court’s previous orders wherein the CDA was asked to formulate “framework/policy for non-conforming establishments in residential units.”
Shops, showrooms and restaurants will be given six months, while offices, hostels, guest houses and beauty parlors one year grace time. Schools, academies, hospitals and clinics will be given two years to move out.
Permission will be granted after obtaining affidavits from the business owners that they would shift their businesses within a specified time and the owners of the houses that they would ensure removal of violation in given time.
The affidavits would mention that upon completion of the relief period, any non-conforming use would have been addressed, and in future, no violation of building bylaws would be tolerated, the policy says.
A licence fee, which in the document has been dubbed as “penalty fee”, will also be charged, while permission will be granted on payment of fines imposed in the past by the CDA for land use norm violation.
Meanwhile, a senior CDA planning wing official said the policy was itself in violation of the city’s master plan, which clearly prohibits any commercial activity in residential areas.
“The city has been planned with different land use zones for balance and harmonious growth. The broad land uses have been planned in clearly distinguished areas such as residential sectors, commercial and civic areas, administrative centre, public building areas, diplomatic enclave, industrial and trading centres, mauve area, sports and recreational areas,” he said.
Residential sectors are planned on the standard pattern spelled out in the master plan.
The residential areas, he said, have been segregated from the commercial to ensure privacy, peace and a healthy environment for citizens.
Read: Budget 2015-16: Capital receives nearly Rs5b for various projects
He said grant of such temporary permissions would violate the master plan and open a new door for violators to obtain stay orders in the future.
He said the distinct appearance of Islamabad would be lost in the aftermath of such permissions.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 18th, 2015.
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