ISLAMABAD: In a bid to stop excessive and irregular sale of plots by housing societies, the Capital Development Authority (CDA) board has approved the formation of a committee to regulate the transfer of plots.

The board, at a meeting chaired by CDA Chairman Sohail Ashraf, besides other agenda items discussed the issue of excessive and fraudulent sale of plots by housing societies.

It authorised the CDA to form a committee for drafting regulations aimed at regulating the transfer of plots in housing societies in Islamabad.

It may be mentioned that there are around 160 hosing schemes (99 unauthorised) in Islamabad and many of them are accused of excessive sale of plots, putting the bona fide purchasers in trouble.

Many societies are also accused of eating up amenity land such as green area, park, graveyard, mosque and school plots by carving out residential and commercial plots.

Thousands of citizens even after paying for their plots are running from pillar to post to get possession of their promised plots in these housing schemes.

Sources said all this was done due to alleged weak regulatory check by the CDA. The CDA board has now decided to form a committee, which will finalise regulations that will be presented before the board for final approval.

The proposed regulations, sources said, will address the issue of irregular and excessive sale of plots, multiple transactions over the same property, disputes regarding title and ownership, and unauthorised development contrary to approved layouts and planning parameters. The sources said that the board pointed out that a large number of private housing societies were independently carrying out transfer and sale of plots through their own internal mechanisms without routing such transactions through the CDA.

The sources said that the board was told that in many cases, transfers were affected solely on the basis of private society records without any centralised verification, oversight or recording by CDA.

“This practice has not only resulted in substantial financial loss to CDA on account of non-payment of transfer fee and other regulatory charges, but has also contributed towards irregular and excessive sale of plots, multiple transactions over the same property,” the board was informed.

At present, there is no regulatory framework governing transfer of plots, maintenance of ownership record, mandatory reporting obligations, digitisation of transactions and regulatory supervision of private housing societies.

The absence of such a mechanism adversely affects transparency in property transactions, weakens institutional oversight and exposes bona fide purchasers to avoidable litigation and fraud.

The sources said the concerned wing of the CDA pleaded before the board that in order to ensure proper regulation of private housing societies, protection of public interest and recovery of legitimate dues of CDA, there was a need to introduce a comprehensive regulatory framework providing for mandatory reporting and registration of plot transfers before CDA, maintenance of centralised ownership record, payment of prescribed transfer fee and regulatory charges, prevention of excess or unauthorised sale of plots and strengthening of oversight over private housing societies.

To this, the board approved the formation of a committee, comprising representatives of Estate Wing, Planning, Finance, Law, Housing Societies wings and IT formations for drafting “Capital Development Authority (Regulation of Private Housing Societies) Regulations, 2026” and submission of recommendations to the board.

Meanwhile, the CDA board also approved a summary for hiring only government-owned consultant firms for the cricket stadium project. The cricket stadium will be constructed at the foothills of Margalla in Zone III near sector D-12.

The board also approved a summary for hiring governed-owned consultant for establishment of Al-Khidmat Markaz to be set up in F-6.

The formation of a committee for drafting penal rent regulations to discourage encroachment on state land was also approved.

Published in Dawn, May 22nd, 2026