Facilitating growth of illegal slums? In a first, FIA arrests 11 CDA officers

ISLAMABAD:

The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on Tuesday arrested 11 officers of the Capital Development Authority (CDA) for allegedly facilitating the establishment of the city’s fastest growing irregular settlement at a green belt between sectors H-9 and H-10.

The officers include six directors, two deputy directors, an assistant-director, and a supervisor.

The development came in the backdrop of a complaint lodged by Additional Inspector-General Punjab Hussain Asghar, who is currently conducting an interior ministry-ordered inquiry into the establishment of irregular settlements in Islamabad.

According to documents, the Ministry of Interior forwarded a complaint to the FIA on September 21, after which a formal inquiry was initiated and subsequently a First Information Report (FIR) was registered against 52 officials.

Ikram Gill Colony — which also houses within its ‘boundaries’ the smaller Rimsha Colony slum — sprang up in 2009, and according to preliminary investigations, it “is the capital’s fastest growing katchi abadi”.

The officers arrested on Tuesday have since 2009 held key posts in the environment and enforcement wings of the CDA and were responsible for keeping checks on illegal slums.  “These officers and officials are responsible for the illegal establishment of this katchi abadi. The settlement continues to grow with their active connivance and facilitation, as evident from CDA record and satellite imagery,” states the FIA inquiry.

The committee is of the view that successive CDA managements failed to address the issue and slums continue to grow in connivance with the CDA officials and authority’s ever-powerful labour union.

The arrested officials include directors Capt (retd) Tahir Shahbaz, Azhar Khurshid, Rizwan Ahmad, Ramzan Joyia, Naveedul Haq, and Sajjad Ali Shah, deputy directors Abdul Latif and Mohammad Attaullah, assistant director Abdul Jabbar and supervisor Mohammad Iqbal.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 4^th, 2015.