ISLAMABAD: A large piece of land owned by the Capital Development Authority (CDA) in Bhara Kahu, originally acquired for a water project, has been encroached upon by the land mafia, while an inquiry committee has been unable to complete the probe for over 18 months.

Officials said CDA had acquired the 400 kanals for Korang waterworks and major portion of the land has been encroached either fully or partially.

“Such encroachment on state land can’t take place without involvement of CDA officials,” said a source.

He added that to determine the alleged involvement of CDA officials and to know the exact quantum of the encroached land, an inquiry committee had already been formed, which was probing the matter.

Probe still in progress, efforts underway to complete it as soon as possible, says inquiry officer

Officials said growing encroachment on CDA land in the shape of houses surfaced many years ago. The CDA wing concerned also wrote letters, but no action was taken. Then in February last year, the CDA formed a committee to probe the matter. But so far, the committee has been unable to complete the probe. According to documents, despite issuance of letters by the secretary of the committee, the required record has not been provided to the inquiry committee.

“There is something fishy in this entire episode. If there is will there is a way. Demarcation of acquired land to retrieve it is not a big job. CDA management should take action of this issue and immediately the land should be demarcated before taking action against those who encroached on it,” said an official.

He said that the ICT revenue department should also be requested by CDA for demarcation, adding CDA’s land directorate should play the main role to determine boundaries of the acquired land.

The official said without proper demarcation nothing can be said with authority about the number of houses/buildings built on the CDA land. But there are reports that a large number of houses have already been built on the acquired land.

According to the inquiry notice issued in February 2025, the committee would complete its task within 30 days.

“The CDA chairman is also the chief commission Islamabad and it is an ideal situation for the civic agency to direct the revenue department of ICT and CDA’s concerned wing to carry out a proper demarcation of the land. Action should be taken against those who occupied state land and officials who did not take action in stopping the encroachment,” an official said and added that there was also a need to check whether the committee was provided the record. If not, action should be taken against the officials concerned as well.

The inquiry notification stated that the committee should conduct physical inspection of the site and get acquainted with ground situation reality. It was also tasked to carry out demarcation of the land after obtaining the record, report of Survey of Pakistan besides identifying all the encroachment.

The committee shall indentify the officers/officials who failed to report the encroachment and fix responsibility.

One of the inquiry officers on Thursday confirmed to Dawn that the probe was still in progress, and quickly added that efforts were underway to complete it as soon as possible.

Published in Dawn, July 4th, 2026