ISLAMABAD: The Capital Development Authority (CDA) is planning to announce a pending built-up property (BuP) award for several residential sectors it acquired years ago.

A source in CDA Deputy Commissioner (DC) Office said that Member Estate Afnan Alam on Tuesday directed the civic body’s DC office to initiate the legal process for the pending BuP awards.

“Initiate the legal proceedings to undertake pending awards of the sectors, either acquired on the basis of Land Sharing Regulations 2007 or Islamabad Displaced Persons Policy 1996,” the sources quoted a letter by the member estate to the DC CDA.

In the letter, the member also directed the DC to use technology, such as geographic information system (GIS) to conduct pending BuP awards for the sake of transparency.

Civic body chief visits E-12 to hear land affected persons out

“Subject to completion of legal formalities, also decide the review cases of land and BuP awards pending in the court of the DC CDA,” the letter said and asked the officials concerned to identify the challenges while conducting the planned survey.

As per CDA’s rules, there are two types of awards: land award and BuP award - this means the announcement of compensation in the shape of plots or cash against the houses.

Sources said ideally, both land and BuP awards should have been announced on the same day; however, the CDA after announcing land awards for many sectors kept the BuP awards pending which led to more construction on the CDA-acquired land.

The civic body also failed to get possession of the acquired land from the affected persons due to the pending BuP awards. It also could not start the development work in D-13, E-13, F-13, C-13, C-16, I-17 and H-16 sectors due to a delay in the announcement of the BuP awards.

Meanwhile, the CDA announced the BuP award for C-15 many years ago, but it has failed to issue allotment letters till date. Last year, the federal cabinet also directed the CDA to clear all pending BuP awards, but the civic agency failed to comply with the cabinet’s decision.

The CDA has so far developed 24 sectors and acquired land for seven more in 2008-09, for which the BuP awards are pending. Besides pending awards, the CDA also failed to clear compensation cases of hundreds of land affected persons in various sectors.

According to some officials pending BuP awards raised many questions. “Why all pending issues are not settled once and for all through a transparent manner,” said an official, adding that this was an injustice that CDA had developed sectors after acquiring land from locals, but still failed to compensate them.

The official added that those whose cases were genuine must be given their due right, while those who were trying to get compensation on the basis of ‘bogus documents’, should be discouraged.

Meanwhile, CDA Chairman Mohammad Usman, member estate and other CDA officers visited E-12 to hear out villagers. The said sector was acquired in the 80s and in 1989, the CDA sold over 4,000 proposed plots and promised to develop the sector within one year. However, 32 years on, the allottees have not gotten their promised developed plots because of the pending issues between the CDA and the villagers.

Published in Dawn, September 15th, 2022