ISLAMABAD: The land directorate of Capital Development Authority (CDA) has raised objections over inclusion of 150 review claims for compensation in C-15 by the deputy commissioner (DC) office of the authority and termed them non-maintainable under the law.

The step raised eyebrows as if the reviews were not-maintainable under the law why the CDA court passed them.

Sources in the CDA said a couple of weeks ago the land directorate raised objections over the 150 review claims about the built-up property (BuP) passed by the court of the CDA deputy commissioner and termed them a violation of the CDA Ordinance 1960. However, CDA high-ups are yet to challenge the review claims before the appellant forum.

Says acceptance of review claims for compensation by CDA deputy commissioner is not maintainable under law

“This seems to be a big scandal. If the reviews were not maintainable why they were passed by the DC court and if they were legitimate why the land directorate rejected them? The entire episode warrants a formal inquiry,” said an official of the CDA who requested not to be named.

He said the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) should probe the entire episode so that action could be taken against those involved in the alleged scam.

The official said the higher-ups of the CDA seemed unmoved to start an inquiry into the matter.

The alleged scandal surfaced last month when Director Land Malik Touqeer Nawaz issued show-cause notices to two officials accused of giving statements in favour of a number of people to secure plots or other compensation in C-15 through the DC court.

They were accused of giving favourable statements before the then CDA Deputy Commissioner Qazi Sohaib for getting plots in the sector against their built-up property (BuP).

The BuP award of the sector was announced in 2016 and a total of 504 people were declared eligible to get the claims. Of them, 167 were placed in ‘A’ list after they provided all requisite information to be declared eligible for the claims while 337 were placed in ‘B’ list. It was decided that when the claimants in the ‘B’ list would provide the requisite information they would also be placed in the ‘A’ list.

Interestingly, the then assistant director technical and director land had submitted certificates that no house or structure was left without measurement at the site. However, in the review cases the DC court decided over 150 cases declaring them eligible for getting BuP award in terms of plots or cash compensation.

“After announcing the BuP award in 2016, all of a sudden our people saw new ‘houses’ whose owners were declared eligible for the award,” said an official.

He said if the authority wanted to check the status of C-15 in 2016 the satellite images of the sector could help it to reach a conclusion.

Sources said without bringing the matter into the notice of their concerned officers, the two officials recorded statements before the DC allegedly to favour some people.

Last month, the director land issued an explanation letter to Assistant Director Technical Tariq Javed and Assistant Director Land Amir Hayat Olak.

The explanation letter said: “The undersigned previously issued orders dated 02-11-2018 and directed all staff to follow channel of recommendations/approval before submitting any response, report on behalf of authority in court cases and other judicial forum. However, recently, the undersigned has been informed that these orders were ignored and statements/reports were submitted by Assistant Director Technical and Assistant Director Land in case of review against DC’s BuP award dated 17-08-2016 without informing and getting formal approval from the concerned divisional head, competent authority.”

It added: “This was despite the fact that at the time of the award both the officials had certified that no house and structure was left without measurement at the site.”

The two officials have been stating that for submitting a reply to the DC court, formal permission was not required and they did nothing wrong.

Qazi Sohaib was recently repatriated after he served in the CDA.

While in the CDA he had told Dawn last month that he did nothing wrong and the court had decided the matter on the basis of statements of officials.

When contacted, CDA’s spokesman Syed Safdar Ali confirmed to Dawn on Friday that the land directorate had raised objections on some review cases. He said the member estate office had moved the law directorate for its opinion.

“I can’t confirm the number of cases but the land directorate has raised objections on some review cases of C-15 and the law directorate has been moved,” he said, adding if the law directorate termed them legitimate, “we will clear the cases and if the law directorate declares them unauthorised or against the interest of the authority we will challenge the cases before the appellant forum.”

Published in Dawn, March 16th, 2019