ISLAMABAD: It had seemed a bold move when the city managers sealed the Safa Gold Mall and the under-construction Grand Hyatt Hotel for violating the Capital Development Authority’s (CDA) building bylaws and not paying CDA dues.

However, many are now questioning the affect of and the intention behind the action taken. After all, little seems to have changed and other developers continue building plazas in violation of the same bylaws while CDA officials look the other way.

People in the realty sector allege that the CDA officialdom knows “the art of devising devious ways for the violators to cover up their violations”. They recall that the CDA had seen nothing wrong with allowing the McDonald’s food chain establishing and running its business in a corner of the F-9 Fatima Jinnah Park, until the Supreme Court of Pakistan ordered it to undo the illegality.

And how did the CDA honour the SC order? It cancelled the lease it had granted to Siza Food, which held the franchise for McDonald’s, and released the same to the American company.

Despite the hype over the CDA’s “tough action” against the Safa Gold Mall and the Grand Hyatt Hotel, CDA insiders advise against expecting much from it.

Already the Safa Gold Mall has been de-sealed on the Islamabad High Court’s orders, which directed the mall owner to clear the CDA dues amounting to Rs220 million and the civic agency’s land he had encroached upon.

Further construction in the mall has been stopped, while the CDA submits the layout plan of the building/plot to the court and reports the findings of the inquiry the court had ordered into individuals who extended undue favours to the mall owner.

The owner of the Grand Hyatt has also challenged the CDA’s decision to cancel the plot on which the building had been constructed. The plot was allotted in 2005. Indeed, the CDA’s decision is belated as the project has almost completed and its developers have taken billions of rupees from buyers of apartments in the property.

Hundreds of people have invested in the Grand Hyatt apartments and in shops in the Safa Gold Mall.

“Though, the developers of both commercial properties have been made to honour rules and regulations, there is little chance of rule of law taking root,” said a CDA official.

“All one can realistically hope for is minor improvement in enforcing the building code.”

And, that too, because the courts’ rulings will make the CDA take action against violators.

“Left to itself the CDA is hesitant, if not incapable, to take on the resourceful commercial interests. In fact, it was pressure from a cabinet minister that made it act against Safa Gold and Grand Hyatt,” he said.

“Otherwise, our bosses could do nothing more than issue a few notices to the owner of Safa Gold Mall for violating the building code and encroaching upon CDA land,” the official said.

An official of the planning wing alleged that some CDA officials were helping developers and investors violate the bylaws.

“First, they help the builders in violating the bylaws and when the matter becomes serious, they disassociate themselves,” he said, adding that the CDA policy on dealing with commercial and high-rise buildings is vague.

“Though we do have policies and regulations, our bosses deal with commercial buildings on a case to case basis,” he added.

For example, he said, a building can only be nine-storey high, in addition to the ground floor, in Blue Area and that CDA officers would make post-bid planning parameters of commercial plots.

He added that a commercial building is required to have a parking in the basement and that in the majority of the cases, building basements are used for commercial activities and not as a parking.

He suggested that the Centaurus Mall should be the new benchmark for building parameters in the Blue Area Strip and the Safa Gold Mall for building in various Markaz.

“But I am sure this will not happen because corrupt officials want their options open in order to make money from developers,” he said and that almost no CDA officers were punished in the Grand Hyatt and Safa Gold cases.

“Builders are only allowed to build two storeys and a ground floor in the Jinnah Super Market and the Safa Gold Mall was allowed to build eight floors in the same market,” he said.

Another senior official said that in the past, CDA officials would make post-bid changes when marking commercial plots. However, he said, no such changes were made during the last three years.

Asked how some buildings in the city including Park Towers, Centaurus, Grand Hyatt and Safa Gold tower were so high when the maximum height limit in the city is nine floors and a ground floor, the officer said these buildings were constructed on a floor-area ratio (FAR) basis, which is 1:5. He said a building can be constructed up to any height using FAR.

When asked, CDA Member Planning Waseem Ahmed Khan insisted the two highrise buildings were sealed or their lease cancelled in accordance with the laws and regulations.

“Serious violations were committed by owners of these buildings,” he said.

“I can’t say anything about the past, but I have never allowed any post-bid changes in the planning and layout of commercial plots. Building bylaws need to be improved and all builders should be dealt with uniformly,” he added.

Islamabad Developers Association Chairman Chaudhry Naseem, on the other hand, criticised the imposition of building height limits.

“While builders across the world are encouraged to construct highrise buildings, we have maximum building heights in Islamabad,” he said.

He said that the CDA should keep an eye on the open spaces left for circulation and corridors even after the plot is auctioned off and that the developer has to pay for these areas as well.

“And this is where irregularities start happening because developers try to build on these spaces as well to bring it into commercial use,” he said.

He said that in Karachi, authorities do not levy charges on open spaces and that the developer only pays for covered areas.

“The CDA does not have a clear policy for commercial buildings and most of the time, policies differ case to case which is not fair. All investors should be treated the same but the bylaws are not applied in their true sense,” he added.

Published in Dawn, August 18th, 2016