ISLAMABAD: Because of the lenient approach of the Capital Development Authority (CDA), Ghouri Town, which spreads over hundreds of kanals, has been carrying out illegal construction activities in Zone IV even after giving an undertaking to the civic agency not to do so.

In a surprising move the CDA has ignored the illegal construction activities in various phases of the society from Phase I to four, VII and Ghouri Garden West.

In June this year, the CDA had sealed the offices of the housing society for illegally operating in Zone IV. However, the civic agency took a U-turn and de-sealed the offices after getting an undertaking from the management of the society in July.

“We shall not carry out any further development in existing phase of Ghouri Town launched, managed and marketed by us without due approval of CDA,” stated the agreement, a copy of which is available with Dawn. It added that “the society would provide to the CDA the requisite documents for its new and in-progress phases within 90 days from today (July 13) for processing of a layout plan and NOC as per the requirement of the CDA”.

CDA had sealed offices of housing society in June but unsealed them a month later after obtaining an undertaking from its owner

Sources said the CDA management had apparently given a free hand to the society after de-sealing its offices.

They said in violation of the agreement the housing society did not stop the development work, particularly on Phase VII. They said recently a deputy director of the planning wing after visiting the site submitted a detailed report to the CDA bosses showing that development work continued with full pace on Phase 7.

When contacted, Member Planning and Design Asad Mehboob Kayani said: “We will not allow anyone to violate the agreement.” He said he had come to know that the operators of the scheme had submitted some documents to get their layout plan approved.

“We will take action to stop the development activities,” he said, adding a ban had been imposed on the provision of utility connections to the society. “We did not favour the society rather by de-sealing its offices we provided a chance to its owners to obtain the NOC,” he said.

Mayor and the acting chairman of CDA, Sheikh Anser Aziz, said: “Just to give relaxation to people who are living in Ghouri Town, we de-sealed the offices for the time being. If they are violating the agreement, we will proceed against them.”

The operator of the society, Raja Ali Akbar, did not respond to phone calls and text messages sent to him by Dawn for comments.

The sources in the CDA said there were over 100 other housing societies in Islamabad which were operating illegally. However, the civic agency has failed to take any serious action against them. These illegal housing schemes developed during the last two decades.

However, recently, the CDA imposed a ban on the provision of utility connections to the residents of these housing societies without getting an approval from the civic agency.

Last year, the Senate standing committee on law and justice in a report, later adopted by the House, had recommended bringing the illegal housing schemes under the ambit of the law.

The report had recommended that the violations of layout plans by housing schemes, which were not possible to rectify, may be accommodated by amending the regulations.

However, no compromise would be made regarding spaces for the public parks. The report had also recommended that any land adjacent to the housing schemes may be utilised as public parks while space for graveyards should be acquired in vicinities and two to three cooperative societies could also make joint ventures for providing and maintaining such spaces.

However, the sources said so far there was no serious development on part of the CDA to implement the Senate committee’s recommendations.

Published in Dawn, October 27th, 2017