Construction is banned within a two kilometre radius of the Rawal Dam area, but in the absence of regulation, a number of houses have been built near the bank of the dam.

Locals who have built these houses claim the land belongs to them, while the Capital Development Authority (CDA) and the Punjab Irrigation Department’s Small Dams Organisation (SDO) – the custodian of the dam – are apparently uncertain about the limits of their land. A large portion of the CDA’s land in near Banigala is also said to in the possession of locals.

The matter of “china cutting” like encroachment on the dam’s land caught the attention of the Prime Minister’s Office in March. Following its intervention, a joint team of the CDA, SDO and ICT administration moved to demolish these encroachments. However, a local landlord, Jamil Abbasi, who constructed the wedding marquees that caught the attention of the Prime Minister’s Office, produced a court order in his favour.

The dam is located in Mauza Lakhwal, which was acquired by the CDA and the Rawalpindi acquisition collector. However, a local claimed that Rawalpindi and the CDA did not acquire all the land, and 419 kanals remained unacquired where the locals had the right to construct buildings.

According to a report compiled by the Pakistan Environment Protection Agency, Rawal Dam is the main source of water to Rawalpindi city and the cantonments. The dam was constructed on the Korang River by SDO in 1960, on land that now falls within Islamabad. It has a catchment area of 106 miles, which generates 84,000 acre feet of water in a year with average rainfall.

There are four main streams and 43 small streams that contribute to the dam’s storage, the entire capacity of which is 47,000 acre feet (12,994 MG).

A couple of months ago, residents of Lakhwal filed a petition with the Islamabad High Court (IHC) seeking an extension in the stay order granted earlier on an operation against the 419 kanals of land near the dam.

Through their counsel, the petitioners pleaded that the Lakhwal Mauza (revenue estate) was 5,925 kanals and five marla, of which 2,874 kanals and eight marla were acquired by the CDA and 2,631 kanals and 16 marla were acquired by the Rawalpindi land acquisition collector for the construction of the dam.

They said approximately 419 kanals and five marla of land had not been acquired by the two organisations, making them the owners of that land and giving them the right to construct on it. The case is being heard in court.

According to CDA Land and Rehabilitation Deputy Director General Abdul Salam Shah: “Within a two kilometre radius of the dam, from the highest water mark, all kinds of construction is illegal.”

He said that after the CDA acquired the land in the 1960s, it had termed Mauza Lakhwal a closed mauza. “We are determining how sale and purchase was done in a mauza that was closed in the 60s,” he said.

He added that the disputed land on which locals are constructing buildings does not belong to the CDA but falls within the SDO’s jurisdiction.

A senior official of the SDO who asked not to be named said his organisation has been issuing notices to locals asking them to vacate the area for a long time, but the locals had managed to obtain stay orders from the courts.

He added: “In the absence of clear demarcation we, and the CDA, are all in a state of confusion. The CDA stated that one bank of the dam, towards the Lakhwal side where locals have allegedly encroached on the land, belongs to us.

“Fine, if they are giving us this disputed bank, then why have they kept control of the other bank where they have developed Lake View Park? If construction is illegal towards Lakhwal, then the same applies to the other bank.”

He said his organisation, through the Rawalpindi revenue department, along with the CDA and the ICT, would together demarcate all the land of Mauza Lakhwal.

When contacted, Deputy Commissioner Islamabad Captain (Retired) Mushtaq Ahmed confirmed that Mauza Lakhwal was closed in the 60s. “The owner – whosever, small dams or the CDA – were given possession of the land. But a couple of years ago, locals filed a civil suit of competent jurisdiction and it was decreed in their favour.”

The deputy commissioner further added that the CDA and ICT have now decided to file an application under section 12(2) of the Civil Procedure Code against the court orders in favour of locals, which was announced without hearing the ICT and CDA. The section says that the principle that if a decree, order or judgment is obtained by fraud, misrepresentation or where the question of jurisdiction may rise, such order, decree or judgment shall be challenged through an application in the same court and no separate suit shall lie.

He said, following the directive from the Prime Minister’s Office, a committee under his supervision is looking into the case.

After the prime minister took notice of alleged “china cutting”, the CDA chairman suspended a few officials from the CDA’s environment directorate for negligence in stopping encroachments, and banned all kinds of construction until fresh demarcation.

However, during a visit to the dam on Wednesday, Dawn noticed construction activity at one location, where a boundary wall of a lavish house was being cemented. In addition to construction on dam land, there are also extensive encroachments on CDA land in various other parts of Islamabad Zone IV, but the authority has failed to retrieve the land.

A letter issued by the authority’s enforcement department to the land department earlier this year stated that areas such as Lakhwal, Banigala, Jaba Teli, Pendorian, Rehara, Muri, Noghazi, Saknall, Jhang Syedan, Punjgran, Tarlai and Jagiot were in critical positions, and “perhaps CDA acquired land is being abused but the non-technical enforcement staff can hardly differentiate between CDA and private land”.

The enforcement wing has been requesting the fresh demarcation of land in these areas to determine state land for several years, but the land directorate has not entertained the request.

Published in Dawn, June 19th, 2016