ISLAMABAD: The Capital Development Authority (CDA) on Tuesday said it has auctioned all of its 236 residential plots in sector C-14 to overseas Pakistanis.

The plots valued around Rs60 million per kanal are expected to fetch Rs14 billion in revenue to the civic agency over the next ten months.

The authority had invited applications from local and overseas investors. However, the civic body had said it would prefer overseas Pakistanis during balloting over local investors, apparently due to their potential for making payments in dollars.

In response to CDA’s announcement, over 1,700 investors including around 550 overseas Pakistanis submitted their applications to participate in the auction.

After fulfilling legal requirements, the civic authority held an e-balloting on Tuesday amongst expats through the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra).

“Since half of the overseas and around 1,000 local applicants could not obtain plots, this is the right time for CDA to go for auctions in other available sectors to fetch more revenue,” said an official from CDA.

He added that besides focusing on expats, the CDA should also have a fixed quota for local investors.

The civic agency reportedly has plots to offer in several new sectors including sectors C-13, C-15 and Park Enclave housing scheme.

The civic agency also has over 700 plots in the Defence Housing Authority (DHA), which it obtained last year in exchange for its land.

“Yes we will explore all these options including our DHA plots in various phases,” said CDA’s media director Shahid Kiani.

The development authority said in a statement later on Tuesday that to ensure transparency in the process, Nadra’s services for conducting e-balloting were utilised.”

CDA Chairman Muhammad Ali Randhawa supervised the e-balloting process and various digits of seed numbers were taken from the participants attending the e-balloting,” the statement said.

It also stated that in case of non-payment of dues by the stipulated date, the plots will be allotted to investors based on the waiting list formed after the balloting.

Additionally, the list of successful candidates will be displayed on the CDA website and official social media platforms.

The CDA chief expressed gratitude to the citizens who submitted applications for the plots and thanked them for their trust in the entity.

He assured that the possession of plots would be handed over to the owners before the final payment.

He also stated that development work in Sector C-14 is being carried out around the clock.

He said that in response to the growing interest in Sector C-14, new sectors will also be launched.

He added that not only new sectors but also the development work in stalled sectors would be carried out.

Published in Dawn, January 15th, 2025