ISLAMABAD: The Capital Development Authority (CDA) came under fire in the National Assembly on Friday for the growth of unauthorised high-rise buildings and the non-completion of ongoing schemes.

PPP MNA Shagufta Jumani said the civic agency has turned a blind eye towards illegal constructions in the city and on its outskirts, including in Banigala, where the prime minister also owns a house.

She said there are no car parking facilities and bathrooms in the high-rises constructed without the CDA’s permission.

“These are basic facilities which are lacking in buildings constructed in the outskirts of the capital,” she said.

State Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Ali Mohammad Khan said the CDA will not approve any new buildings which do not include these facilities.

In reply to a question, Mr Khan said the CDA has submitted a plan in the Supreme Court (SC) for the regularisation of all under construction and already constructed high-rise buildings in the federal capital, including those sealed in E-11.

He said SC had ordered the authority to make a plan for regularising buildings that were constructed without the CDA’s permission.

Dozens of high-rise apartment buildings have been made in E-11, which was once considered out of the CDA’s limits and in the Golra Estate, an area exempted from any administrative control of the city managers by a former dictator decades ago. There was therefore no need to obtain an NoC from the CDA to construct a high-rise building.

The CDA sealed the buildings after people had invested in them. The minister said he hoped the apex court will soon approve the rules made by the civic agency for regularising the buildings under question.

Another MNA said the civic agency is not taking steps for completing and developing stalled sectors and asked what is being done about linking residential sectors including I-9 and I-10 to the Kashmir Highway.

The state minister for parliamentary affairs said the contract for the development of I-14 will be awarded in June next year.

During Question Hour, MNA Nafisa Khattak asked why one of the most important projects, the construction of the Margalla Avenue, was delayed.

“I heard the project has been stalled due to non-possession of land,” she said.

Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Ali Mohammad Khan said the question was not included on Friday’s agenda and that he could therefore not reply. However, the concerned minister will inform the house on the project.

The Rs588 million project for constructing a road at the foot of the Margalla Hills to connect the Grand Trunk Road with Murree Road has been facing delays the last four years due to litigation between the city managers and contractors.

The non-possession of the acquired land and two graveyards in the road’s way are the main reasons behind the delay in the project.

CDA’s Director Road Khalid Asif said the project stopped four years ago when the contractor for the project went to the local courts against the CDA, saying the authority had failed to clear land in the road’s way and also claimed damages for the delay.

The contractor had won the case in the lower court which the CDA challenged in the Islamabad High Court where it is yet to be decided.

The CDA official said the authority was also working on two proposals for reviving the stalled Margalla Avenue project after it was unable to construct a portion of the road near Shah Allah Ditta due to a shrine and a centuries-old graveyard in the alignment of the road.

One of the options is to construct a flyover and the second it to revise the alignment near Shah Allah Ditta.

Published in Dawn, November 10th, 2018