ISLAMABAD, May 17: Khalid Mehmood, who served his country well in the Pakistan Navy, does not have a home he can call his own.

For the past 14 years, he has been knocking at the doors of different officials in the Capital Development Authority (CDA) to get possession of his 30x60 square-foot plot in the new sector of I-14 across the G.T. Road.

During his service on ship, Mehmood would plan for a retirement that would be relaxing and peaceful. Not once did it occur to the sailor that a trusted office like the CDA would allot his little piece of land to someone else.

“I learnt that the civic agency had transferred my plot to two other individuals over the years,” said the retired junior ranking PN officer. For two-and-a-half years, his file could not be traced by officials in the civic agency. Nobody in the CDA explained how it went missing, and then miraculously was found one day.

Nearly 8,500, fortunate citizens were allotted plots in I-14 back in the 1990s. Some 1,300 to 1,400 of them were not as lucky, their plots were allotted to someone else.

“In some cases, a single plot was transferred five to six times,” said a source in the CDA.

Mohammad Tanvir was also among the less fortunate ones whose plot was transferred to another citizen in Islamabad. Most of his time was also spent running between the CDA offices to find out the progress on his case and get possession of his plot.

What did not make sense was how the same file of a particular plot was submitted to the CDA one-window facility, passed on to the revenue department and then approved by the state wing without someone noticing that the plot had already an owner.

“These concerned offices cannot be deaf and dumb that they did not recognise a file being transferred to several individuals. Obviously, such a big mess could not go unnoticed for long. Still, for the last six years the state wing has done little to solve the problem to provide relief to the affected applicants,” said the official, explaining how plots were still being transferred to new applicants instead of compensating those who had been deprived of this valuable possession.

According to another officer, there were no mechanisms in place to check the double allotments. Worst still, to accommodate the 1, 000 plus residents whose plots were allotted more than once, the CDA was redesigning some portion of the sector to create some 200 more plots, said the source.

“In doing so, the plot sizes had been shrunk from 30 by 60 square feet to 25 by 50 square feet, something that the affected individuals are not too pleased to learn,” the source said.

But the state wing explained how over two dozen officers were going through the 8,000 plus files to figure out double allotments.

“All allotments have been stopped. The affected residents will be compensated on a priority,” said a senior official in the state wing, adding how efforts were being made to correct the errors made in the past.

The official also explained how records were being computerised to prevent double allotments in sectors I-14, I-12 and D-13.