ISLAMABAD, May 11: A National Assembly committee has put the Capital Development Authority in a fix by insisting that it must compensate a group of people for their land the CDA acquired to develop Sector F-11 when they had been paid the compensation 40 years ago.

“How can we compensate them twice? Just because they continue to occupy illegally the land and have recruited political pressure,” wondered a CDA official involved in the issue.

It looks strange that the National Assembly Standing Committee on Cabinet wants the CDA to financially compensate the previous owners of the 343 kanals of land, and provide them residential plots also, “as per CDA rules” when that had already been done.

Documents available with Dawn show a shrine and a graveyard also located at the land.

An official close to the developments said that CDA had already acquired the land and compensated the owners.

“How can we allocate millions of rupees funds for a land the CDA has already acquired,” added the official.

A letter in this regard was also sent to the cabinet committee in July last year in which the civic authority’s land and rehabilitation directorate noted: “Recommendations given by the honorable committee strictly speaking are not in line with the discussions…..The situation demands an objective appreciation of facts so that government exchequer may not incur undue loss.”

The CDA in its reply noted that they have acquired the land, now a costly piece in the area, way back in 1969 and 1982. However, people living only on a piece of three kanals can be compensated.

“The compensation cannot be made to any individual as per the law of the authority since the shamlat (a property of every resident of the area) have a difficult terrain, shrine area and barren land,” the directorate noted in its reply.

The CDA department asserted that for 343 kanals, compensation amounting to Rs30,716 had already been made to the landholders during the year 1974 when the civic authority started acquiring the land. Another CDA official when asked to comment on the matter added: “We are willing to construct a mosque and the boundary wall of the graveyard alone while the additional demands of the residents is only a burden on the national exchequer which has already been acquired by the CDA.”

The CDA officials requested the committee to review the recommendations which had put the authority in a difficult position.

The official said that residents had all the rights to approach the court for any legal issue, but the CDA has all the record to clear the concerns of any official from the parliament.

The MQM’s legislator Sheikh Salahudin told Dawn: “Though I am not well versed with the issue but I will raise it in the next committee meeting because it’s against the law. The committee should not have recommended the compensation in the first place.

“I assure you that I will lodge a protest if there is any authenticity in the issue as raised by the CDA,” maintained Mr Salahaudin.

Despite repeated attempts, CDA Chairman Farkhand Iqbal could not be approached for comments.