ISLAMABAD: The federal government will have to pay the CDA for its land if it wants to sell the Jinnah Convention Centre, the Capital Development Authority (CDA) told a cabinet committee on privatisation on Wednesday.

The Convention Centre is located at one end of Constitution Avenue, and is used as a venue for exhibitions and summits by private and public sector organisations.

The building is currently under the CDA’s supervision.

The meeting of the privatisation committee, chaired by Finance Minister Asad Umar, was attended by CDA Chairman Amer Ali Ahmed, Member Planning Hafiz Ehsanul Haq, Member Estate Khushal Khan and other officials.

At present the building is under the civic body’s supervision

Sources said that CDA officials told meeting participants that the Convention Centre was constructed with bridge financing in 1996. This means the CDA funded the construction and was reimbursed by the government.

But, CDA officials explained, the land on which the building stands still belongs to the CDA and the federal government has not paid the authority to change its title.

“The committee was told that if the government wants to privatise this building it will have to pay the CDA for the land,” a meeting participant said.

He added that although the property is on the active privatisation list, without a change in title the government cannot move ahead with its plans to privatise it.

The official said the meeting did not make a final decision on this matter, and will likely discuss it at upcoming meetings.

Another participant said that in the past, property was allotted to the Cabinet Division subject to the fulfilment of required codal formalities, such as obtaining approval from the prime minister and paying the CDA for the plot. Neither of these requirements has been fulfilled so far, he said.

Previous governments have also tried to privatise the Convention Centre, he added.

In a meeting on July 2, 1997, the federal government inter-alia approved the provision of a luxury hotel and shopping mall adjacent to the Convention Centre (which was built in 1996) and excluded other components of the Convention Centre project – a monument and banquet hall approved by cabinet on Jan 8, 1996 – while considering a summary submitted by the Cabinet Division on the privatisation of the Convention Centre and the provision of a five star hotel in Islamabad.

The PML-N government also tried to privatise the building in 2014, but was unsuccessful.

He said that since the CDA is still the title holder of the property, if the property is auctioned its proceeds cannot be siphoned to the federal government.

The Convention Centre is the only government property which will have 100pc of its shares transferred to potential buyers upon acquisition.

“If we are paid in full for our land, which is nearly four acres, we have no objections to the government’s plan to sell the building,” a CDA official, who asked not to be named, said.

Published in Dawn, February 14th, 2019