December 12, 2002	Thursday	Shawwal 7, 1423

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ISLAMABAD, Dec 11: The government has asked the Capital Development Authority (CDA) to give two of its blocks, a canteen and over 10 kanals located in the authority’s headquarters to an intelligence agency, reliable sources told Dawn.

The sources said the Prime Minister Secretariat had ordered the authority to provide blocks 6 and 8 and a canteen to the intelligence agency.

They said the land and the blocks would soon be handed over to the agency for which the agency had offered Rs100 million to the authority.

The agency had already acquired the CDA’s laboratory and store building some years ago.

“The CDA headquarters will be further squeezed after the handing over of its huge portion (25 per cent of the total area) to the intelligence agency,” the sources said.

They feared that one day the entire CDA headquarters would be given to the agency and the authority would be compelled to set up its offices at other places.

The two blocks and the CDA canteen are situated close to the intelligence agency’s office and are considered to be a security threat to the agency’s office.

The agency had already conveyed its reservations regarding threat to its security due to the presence of visitors in the CDA’s canteen.

Following the handing over of the CDA’s land and buildings, the authority’s directorates in these blocks would be shifted to the old naval headquarters near Melody Market, the sources said.

They said the intelligence agency had already acquired some 60 acres in the foothills of Margalla range.

The land was occupied by the agency some 15 years ago without approval of the CDA and it was still under the agency’s possession, the sources said.

The Margalla Hills and the area in its vicinity had been designated as the National Park area by the military government of Ziaul Haq and construction in that area was banned, a source added.

“But in contravention of the existing land laws of the capital, the authority is being compelled to regularize an irregular occupation,” he added.