ISLAMABAD: Land is a precious commodity, but just how precious it is becomes clear with the story of the 48-kanals that the Capital Development Authority (CDA) once planned to acquire – before multiple owners turned up to lay claim to the compensation money.

Falling within the yet-to-be-launched sector H-16, the 48-kanal area was first surveyed by the CDA over a decade ago. When the authority tried to acquire it, a man named Abdullah claimed to own it and asked the CDA for Rs38.7 in exchange for the land.This was in 2005 and the CDA has still not paid the money or acquired the land.

This is not just because of shortage of money, but because of the lengthy litigation the authority has gotten caught up in. In fact, the case over this piece of land, which is currently being heard by the Islamabad High Court, encapsulates the housing predicament in Islamabad and the highlights the CDA’s slow pace of work.

The authority has failed to develop new sectors for over a decade now, because it doesn’t have the money to pay compensation to claimants that may amount to billions of rupees.

CDA and courts still baffled by separate claims on 48-kanal plot in sector H-16

This amount is said to include numerous fake claims, which are next to impossible to verify or discredit.

In the case of this particular 48-kanal piece of land, the authority was ready to pay up back in 2005 when the claimant died – or so CDA was told. Its documents state that “due to his demise, the said amount was not disbursed.”

Three months later, in December, Qasim Ali, a resident of Rawalpindi applied to the CDA, claiming to be Abdullah’s heir. He asked that the compensation money be given to him.

While this application was still being processed in 2006, Mohammad Bashir, a resident of Gohra Gujran, Rawalpindi, appeared, also claiming he was Abdullah’s legal heir. He filed a ‘suit for declaration’ in a civil court of Islamabad. The petition is still pending.

Within three years, a third claimant appeared.

Mohammad Mansha, a resident of Pakpattan, approached the CDA and claimed to be Abdullah’s heir and on April 4, 2009 he also filed an application that he be given the Rs38.7 million.

The same year, a man named Idrees also approached the authority and claimed he was Abdullah’s son.

On June 11, 2009, Idrees claimed that Abdullah was his father; he went to the Civil Court and obtained a succession certificate.

Two years later in 2011, Bashir, who had earlier claimed to be Abdullah’s legal heir, challenged Idrees’ documents and the matter eventually reached the IHC.

During a recent hearing of this legal dispute, Nazir Jawwad, senior counsel for the CDA, stunned everyone in the courtroom when he said that while four ‘heirs’ were fighting each other for the compensation, the original claimant had “come back to life”.

According to the lawyer, the authority had now been told that the man it had been led to believe was dead, had approached the CDA tehsildar for his money.

According to documents, Abdullah, son of Karim Bakash and a resident of Rawalpindi “personally appeared before the CDA official (showing himself as original claimant) and requested for the release of his payment.”

CDA continues to try and verify the various claims.

The authority’s field staff recorded the statements of many locals, including the headman of the village where the coveted piece land is located.

According to the CDA, its staff was told that the owner of the land, ‘Abdullah’ had died before 1947 and that all the claimants were fake.

The document said, “Karim Bakash (father of Abdullah) came from Fatehjang and started living in village Noon as servant of mosque.

The land in question was donated to him by some locals and the same was transferred in his name. After his demise the said land was transferred in the name of Abdullah his son, who was not mentally stable and did not marry as he was not able to perform the obligations as married person. He buried in graveyard of village Noon before Pakistan came into existence.”

The CDA has recommended that “in these circumstances, the land in question… could be devolved to the state.

It added that it had no objection to paying the “actual legal heir of Abdullah” provided this issue was investigated by “any independent agency”.

IHC would again take up this matter after summer vacations in September 2014. This, however, is not the only such story of the land claims and litigation the authority is caught up in.

No wonder then that since 2005, none of the nine sectors launched by the CDA has been completed. These, according to an official of the directorate of land of the CDA, include F-13, E-13, D-13, C-13, C-14, C-15, C-16, H-16 and I-17.

Published in Dawn, August 1st, 2014