ISLAMABAD: On the direction of Prime Minister Imran Khan, the capital administration has swung into action and prepared a list of 80 people allegedly involved in land grabbing activities.

Deputy Commissioner Hamza Shafqaat said action will be taken against all land grabbers.

“A list of around 80 people is under consideration and they all will be arrested,” he added.

Following the orders of the prime minister, the police and the district administration put seven alleged land grabbers behind bars for 90 days under the Maintenance of Public Order (MPO) Ordinance 1960 on Thursday.

Sources in the revenue department and the Capital Development Authority (CDA) said a large number of people have allegedly been involved in land grabbing in the capital.

They said in the rural areas and in housing schemes, people often complained about not getting possession of plots they had purchased.

“The focus should be on helping people who spend their lifetime earnings on purchasing plots of a few marlas in housing schemes or in private areas but could not get possession of the plots,” said an official.

He said the alleged land grabbers already put behind bars deserved strict punishment and action should be taken against others too.

The sources said a caller, who owns a large chunk of land in Ghouri Town, had complained to the prime minister during the latter’s telephonic interaction with the public that land grabbers had occupied his land in the town.

After the complaint, the city managers were directed to take action against the land grabbers.

“Launching action against land grabbers is a good step but people having poor background should be given priority and their land should be retrieved from land grabbers,” said the official. Besides, there are also some owners of housing societies who even have occupied hundreds of kanals of CDA land but the civic agency has failed to retrieve it.

Another official of the CDA said when the PTI came to power in 2018, an operation was launched but it was halted without getting any desired result.

He appreciated the prime minister for ordering action against land grabbers but added that the government should also direct for action against those officials of the CDA who did not take timely action to stop growth of illegal housing schemes for years.

Amongst the seven alleged land grabbers, the owner of Ghouri Town is also behind bars. Ghouri Town is one of the largest unauthorised housing schemes in Islamabad which comprises almost eight phases. But the CDA never took action against it.

Resultantly, thousands of people living in the town are suffering hardships because of unavailability of utility connections in the unauthorised housing scheme.

In cases of other unauthorised housing schemes, the role of the CDA has also been highly questionable. The officials said in most of the cases the civic agency kept itself busy in issuing notices only while on the ground operators of housing schemes continued expanding their schemes by selling plots beyond the capacity of available land.

The sources said several owners of schemes also sold out plots, initially reserved for green areas and institutions.

However, an officer of the CDA claimed that the incumbent management had taken practicable steps against illegal housing schemes that also included action against Ghouri Town. He said an updated list of illegal housing schemes had also been uploaded on CDA website and soon action will be taken against all illegal schemes. He said a commission formed by the federal government had proposed a solution to the illegal schemes by allowing them to get themselves regulated by the CDA after fulfilling certain criteria.

Published in Dawn, February 6th, 2021