ISLAMABAD: The Capital Development Authority (CDA) has begun working on announcement built-up property (BUP) awards for seven residential sectors.

BUP awards for C-13, C-16, D-13, E-13, F-13, H-16 and I-17 have been pending for 12 years. Sources said the CDA acquired land in these sectors in 2008-9, but negligence in announcing the BUP award alongside the land award resulted in an increase in BUP cases.

Under BUP awards, the CDA compensates people for their homes in the form of payment and alternate land.

Sources said that the land and BUP awards should have been announced the same day, but the CDA, either due to negligence or with mala fide intentions, never does so when it takes possession of land. In many cases, the BUP award is announced decades later, by which time people have built new homes that can be used to obtain alternate plots from the authority.

Awards for C-13, C-16, D-13, E-13, F-13, H-16 and I-17 have been pending for 12 years

Director Land Shafi Marwat agreed that land and BUP awards should have been announced on the same day, adding that “in the future we will announce both awards together to avoid construction on acquired land.”

He said the CDA has decided to announce the pending BUP awards for seven sectors.

“We have already engaged the services of the Survey of Pakistan to get details of houses constructed in the seven sectors in question. after getting reports from the Survey of Pakistan, we will immediately begin announcing the BUP awards,” he said.

The CDA’s land directorate made headlines for its last two BUP award announcements in C-15 and Chatta Bakhtawar.

In the case C-15, after review the CDA added around 300 new cases to BUP awards list B, but CDA Chairman Amer Ali Ahmed did not approve the list and instead asked the concerned member to look into how so many cases were added to it.

In Chatta Bakhtawar, the land directorate had an initial list of almost 200 cases a few tears ago, but added more than 300 more. This case is now being investigated by the National Accountability Bureau.

When asked about BUP fraud cases, Mr Marwat said transparency would be ensured for all the new BUP awards.

The CDA’s land directorate has long been considered the most corrupt wing of the authority, and in the last six months the CDA’s security directorate has pointed out a number of corruption cases including backdated plot allotments in I-11, I-12, I-14, D-13 and so on.

Sources said more than 300 plots were allotted in these sectors in the last three years. This case is also being investigated by a CDA committee, but sources said that the inquiry committee that collected strong evidence regarding fraudulent allotments has been slow in finalising its report.

Sources said that in 2017, the CDA decided that in the future no plots would be allotted to people whose land has been acquired by the CDA without balloting.

In a bid to skip the balloting process, the land directorate allegedly continued to make individual allotments but backdated the files. Some CDA officials said that allotment letters were issued on the basis of forged or bogus documents in some of the cases of backdated allotments.

A senior officer said: “The inquiry committee, besides investigating backdated allotment cases, is also checking whether the documents are genuine.”

Mr Marwat said that since he took charge last month, he has formed a scrutiny committee that will move the file after proper scrutiny.

“I formed the scrutiny committee and posted out some tainted officials from this directorate…with the support of the chairman and member, I have been taking steps to bring improvements in functioning of this directorate,” he said.

Published in Dawn, April 6th, 2020