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| December 1, 2005 | Thursday | Shawwal 28, 1426 |
Draw for I-15 sector: luck smiles on outsiders
ISLAMABAD, Nov 30: Luck favoured outsiders more than the locals in the balloting held by the Capital Development Authority (CDA) on Wednesday for the plots and flats in its new I-15 sector. A CDA source told Dawn that the idea behind opening the new sector was to overcome the housing problem of the citizens of Islamabad and Rawalpindi but the winners that the computer churned out in the draw mostly belong to other cities.
“Initially application forms were provided to 19 branches of Habib Bank in Islamabad only and people from other parts of the country had to come to the capital to get and submit their forms. Later the bank was asked to sell and receive applications forms at its all branches in other cities,” the source said.
Since most of the plots and flats went to outsiders in the computerized balloting, the source said the problem of shortage of houses would remain with the luckless residents of the twin cities.
Sector I-15, located at Islamabad-Rawalpindi boundary, was inaugurated by Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz on July 25. The land of the sector was acquired 35 years ago.
Dawn has learnt that because of non-development of new residential units in Islamabad, the shortage of housing units has gone up to 35,000.
When contacted, a senior official of the authority said people from all over the country could apply for plots or flats in the new sector and the balloting was completely fair and transparent.
The balloting was inaugurated by Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao. The CDA Chairman Kamran Lashari, the authority’s Member Engineering Brig Ghulam Akbar Bokhari, member planning Brig Nusratullah, member administration Shaukat Ali Mohmand, member finance Kamran Qureshi, senior officials and applicants were also present on the occasion.
Some 97 additional plots were added to the 5,560 plots that the brochure of sector I-15 originally had offered. Of the 5,560 plots, 3,454 measured 138.89 square yards (five marlas), 40 measured 166.67 square yards (six marlas) and 2,132 plots were of 200 square yards (7.2 marlas).
However, the data given to the media during the balloting showed that a total of 5,657 plots and 8,000 flats were on offer. Of the 5,657 plots, 3,454 were of five marlas, 62 of six marlas and 2,141 of 7.2 marlas.
The CDA’s data said 1,865 five-marla size plots went to the applicants in general public category, 863 to federal government employees, 34 to journalists and 690 to people whose land had been acquired in the past for developing Islamabad sectors.
Similarly, out of 62 plots of six marlas, 33 were given to general public, 15 to federal government employees and 12 plots to land affected people.
In the category of 7.2 marla plots, 1,156 plots went to general public, 535 to federal government employees, 21 to journalists and 428 by to land affected people of Islamabad.
Of the 8,000 flats on offer, 5,600 went to general public, 2,320 to federal government employees and 80 to journalists.
However, the source said there were less applicants in the journalist quota and several plots and flats of this category were adjusted in other categories. Details of the adjustment were not provided to media.
Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao expressed the hope that with the opening of I-15 sector, the price of land in Islamabad would “reduce further”.
“It would also minimise the shortage of housing units in the capital,” he added.
He said the problem of land acquisition for sector E-11 and I-11 had been resolved and these two sectors would also be opened very soon.
The CDA chairman, Mr Kamran Lashari said some 4,328 applications had been rejected due to non-submission of Computerised National Identity Cards (CNICs) or submission of duplicate CNICs.
He said a total of 405,657 application forms were sold and 344,488 applications were received.
The CDA chief said sector I-15 had been opened after 18 years as the last sector in Islamabad was F-11 which was opened in 1987.
Member Engineering of the CDA, Brig Ghulam Akbar Bokhari said the development work of the sector would start from January 1, 2006 and would be completed in two years.
Four firms had been per-qualified for the contract of sector I-15 development and it would be awarded by December 15.
REIMBURSEMENT OF DEPOSITED AMOUNT: A official of the CDA said the bank would start reimbursement of amount of unsuccessful applicants from December 18 while the bank would start receiving claims by Dec 1.
The deposited amount would be reimbursed by showing original CNIC of the applicant and original bank receipt of the deposited amount.
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