November 15, 2007	Thursday	Ziqa’ad 04, 1428

ISLAMABAD, Nov 14: Military authorities on Wednesday put the Capital Development Authority (CDA) on notice to get vacated within seven days the 870 acres in E-10 sector it had sold to them for establishing a new GHQ.

Dawn has learnt that the virtual ultimatum was delivered by senior military officers in a meeting with the city officials.

The piece of land on the northern side of the sector is part of the 2,500 acres bought by the military for building a ‘defence complex’ and is in possession of farming families who have refused to leave unless compensated “adequately” for their land and houses.

A senior CDA official, however, said the local administration and the CDA together will launch a massive campaign “in a couple of days” to evict the “encroaching” families. The military got upset when some farmers held up its construction plans, claiming that the CDA appropriated their 100 acres without paying any compensation.

Some fear that an operation against the estimated 5,000 farmers would create a law and order problem.

The military had been upset because the held up its construction plans because the CDA sold their 100 acres of land to the military but paid no compensation to them.

It is learnt that the military officers questioned the CDA hierarchy why it sold 2,500 acres to the military without first resolving the compensation issue.

They directed the CDA and the local administration to remove within a week the obstructive farmers and their 5,000 structures standing on the land the military had bought in chunks since 1991 for building the defence complex.

Army officials resented the CDA concealing the fact that the land it sold to the military was not vacant but occupied by the locals.

CDA’s director land Asadullah Faiz said that only 1,000 of the 5,000 farmers demanding compensation for their ‘Built Up Property’ (BUP) were genuine natives. The rest were outsiders who had illegally occupied land in the area to claim compensation.

He said the CDA had paid for the land still being encroached by the natives and the outsiders but compensation for BUP remained to be paid.

Sources said new constructions were being raised in the area and other villages despite a ban on such construction. They said CDA staff was conniving in the illegal new constructions.

The meeting decided to set up police pickets at different places on GHQ land to check the menace.

A CDA official said some outsiders build several one-room constructions, give one to a genuine natives and keep others to themselves. While one room costs Rs20,000 to build each could fetch them one residential plot in Sector H-15 in compensation.

A new cantonment would be established in Islamabad following the shifting of the GHQ in sector E-10 and D-11. The area housing the headquarters of the Navy, the Pakistan Air Force and the Army at Allama Iqbal Avenue would be declared the cantonment area.

According to the ministry of defence, 2,438 acres of land has been acquired for the project. Of that some 1,430 acres would be used for building a residential complex and the Joint Services Headquarters and the General Headquarters.

Meanwhile, Anjuman-i-Mutasireen (association of the affected people) of sector I-14, I-15 and I-16 president Chaudhry Jehangir said the CDA should give due right to the genuine landholders. He said encroachments were made in connivance with the CDA staff.