ISLAMABAD: Residents of Ghauri Town on Friday protested outside the CDA headquarters against a ban on new utility connections without approval of the civic agency.

The residents chanted slogans against the civic agency and demanded immediate lifting of the ban.

The protest was called by Ghauri Town Welfare Association headed by Rana Abdul Qayyum.

Say getting gas and electricity connections is a fundamental right

The protesters said getting utility connections was a fundamental right of the residents but on the request of the CDA, the Sui Northern Gas Pipelines (SNGPL) and Islamabad Electric Supply Company (Iesco) were not giving them connections.

The protesters said around 200,000 people lived in the town and that there had been no ban on registry and land transfer when they had purchased the plots and constructed houses.

But after 2015, the provision of new connections has been linked with a no-objection certificate (NOC) from the CDA.

The civic agency issues NOC for legal and legitimate housing societies. The CDA has declared all phases of Ghauri Town illegal, saying its operators did not get approval for the layout plans.

The civic agency, however, did not take any action on time and its negligence helped the operators of the society thrive. By the time the CDA initiated action the operators had sold out a majority of plots to the citizens who are now in trouble because of the ban.

In 2017, CDA sealed the offices of Ghauri Town but opened it within a month after obtaining an ‘undertaking’ from the society management.

In the undertaking, the society management had claimed: “We shall not carry out any further development in existing phase of Ghauri Town launched, managed and marketed by us without due approval of CDA.”

It added: “The society would provide to the CDA the requisite documents for its new and in progress phases within 90 days from today (July 13, 2017) for processing of a layout plan and NOC as per the requirement of the CDA.”

But after de-sealing of its offices, the society did not follow the agreement and the CDA also took no further action.

When contacted, CDA spokesperson Syed Safdar Ali said the civic agency had, in fact, not placed any ban on new utility connections nor it had any such mandate.

“We had requested the SNGPL and Iesco not to provide any connection without our NOC. We issue NOC only to legal housing schemes,” he said, adding Ghauri Town was an illegal housing scheme.

He said green areas and plots initially reserved for amenities had also been sold out in the town.

“So how can we facilitate such a housing scheme,” he said.

Published in Dawn, March 30th, 2019