ISLAMABAD: The Capital Development Authority’s (CDA) ongoing exercise to construct boundary pillars is being strongly resisted by certain housing societies and has thus been halted, Dawn has learnt.

Following the directions of the Supreme Court, the CDA had the boundaries of the land under its remit (as opposed to that managed by the Rawalpindi district) demarcated by the Survey of Pakistan, and pillars – or concrete markers – are in the process of being erected as visual delineation.

“Perhaps the housing societies are resisting the pillars because they may be encroaching upon CDA land,” speculated a senior CDA officer who requested not to be named. “Or, it could be because the schemes market their land as part of the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT). Then, there is the matter of roads and access areas that fall under the purview of the CDA but may be being used by these housing schemes in Rawalpindi district.”

According to the CDA’s master-plan, the capital is spread over 906sq km and divided into five zones. Zone I is comprised of 222.41sq km, Zone II of 39.68sq km, Zone III of 203.93sq km, Zone IV of 282.53sq km and Zone V of 157.95sq km.

Markers are being raised to delineate ICT territory from that of Rawalpindi district

Documents of the development authority available with Dawnshow that two housing schemes that fall in Rawalpindi district adjacent to ICT Zone I, as well as locals of Mauza Bokra in the same area, prevented the CDA from erecting boundary pillars. Similarly, two housing societies in Rawalpindi district abutting Zone IV of the capital forced CDA contractors to stop constructing boundary pillars.

CDA’s deputy director of sector development Javed Akhtar Zehri, who is supervising the pillar construction project, through an official letter on Monday informed the member engineering, director general works and others of the resistance put up by the housing schemes.

“In view of above, it is intimated that abovementioned societies are not allowing the contractor for further execution of work at site. Moreover, the executing agency put efforts to resolve the hurdles created by locals and societies at various zones, but no positive achievement so far met for execution of work at site,” reads the letter, which is available with Dawn.

The CDA official requested his superiors to take the matter up with the operators of the housing societies concerned and the locals of Mauza Bokra, and resolve the issue at the earliest so that the sector development division can complete the remainder of the task in a timely fashion, as desired by the SC.

When contacted, CDA spokesperson Malik Saleem said that some housing societies had indeed created hurdles in CDA’s exercise of constructing markers, resulting in a temporary halt to the exercise. However, he said, no one would be allowed to take the law into their own hands.

“Let me make clear, boundary pillars will be erected at all places [required],” he said. “We will take up the issue with the housing societies to resolve the issue amicably, otherwise the law will take its course.”

The pillars are being raised to clearly identify the civic agency’s land and prevent encroachment on it. Sources said that about 45pc of the pillars confirming the demarcation carried out by the Survey of Pakistan have so far been constructed.

The demarcation had been carried out on the basis of federal government notifications of 1963. According to the 1963 notification, the capital is spread over 906sq km, and this is the area mentioned in the city’s master-plan as well. The master-plan was prepared before the city was given the status of a district and was referred to as the ‘capital site’.

The CDA is still undecided about areas that were included or deleted on the basis of 1979 and 1981 notifications, when the capital site was excluded from Rawalpindi district in light of the Local Government Act 1979. In the 1981 notification, several mauzas, or revenue estates, of Rawalpindi and Murree were made part of ICT. Since then, the ICT revenue department has been dealing with the land affairs of these mauzas, including Phulgran and Bobri, that are not part of the master-plan site of 1963 but are now part of ICT limits.

Sources in the CDA said that the issue of these extended areas surfaced during the Survey of Pakistan’s demarcation exercise, but it was decided that in the first phase, the ICT boundaries should be determined on the basis of the 1963 notification.

“In the latest exercise, demarcation was carried out on the basis of the 1963 notification,” said the senior CDA officer who requested anonymity. “At a later stage, we will examine the legal status of those mauzas that were made part of Islamabad [Capital Territory] in 1981.”

He confirmed that the demarcation process had been completed and currently, the CDA was raising boundary pillars through contractors.

Published in Dawn, August 14th, 2018