ISLAMABAD, July 2: A Senate committee has asked the Capital Development Authority (CDA) to explain its gush of generosity in allotting more than 3,000 residential plots to its employees.

Senator Mohammad Talha Mahmood, the chairman of the Senate Standing Committee on Interior, told reporters after holding a meeting of the committee at the CDA headquarters on Monday that the 3,194 allotments made in Sectors I-8 and G-11 in the past two months appeared to be irregular.

CDA’s member administration Shaukat Ali Mohmand, however defended the allotments. He said no irregularity was committed and legal opinion sought from the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and law expert Senator S.M. Zafar had held that the CDA could allot the plots.

Senator Mahmood, who belongs to the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal, said the CDA had been asked to provide “entire record” about the allotments to the committee in three days.

No legal advice was needed, he asserted and said Senator S.M. Zafar was paid Rs1 million as fee. He suspected that the CDA did not provide full facts to the legal experts to secure the advice that it got.

The whole issue arose from legal battles fought by the employees of the CDA for a share in the prized Islamabad land.

It was in 1991 that a reluctant CDA allotted 282 plots to its employees after a court ruled that 20 per cent of plots in Sector I-8 should go to them.

That worked out to be 343 plots for them but the CDA hung on to the remaining 61 plots until last year when the Lahore High Court and the Supreme Court upheld their claim to them.

In the past two months, however, the CDA suddenly became very generous to its employees - even those on deputation.

Senator Mahmood said he had stopped sale, purchase and transfer of what he called “the controversial plots”. But 40 per cent of the total plot owners, including top officials, are said to have already sold their plots.

The MMA senator said the CDA bureaucracy interpreted the ruling of the Lahore High Court in a way that increased the number of plots from 61 to over 3,000 and even those officials working on the basis of deputation were also allotted plots.

“I believe that not only the CDA but the interior ministry was equally responsible for the irregularities,” he said in reply to a question.

He also accused the CDA of violating the Land Disposal Regulations 2005. Under the regulations, plots in a developed sector could not be allotted directly to anybody but only sold through open auction.

In his view the CDA also violated the rules and criteria of the Federal Government Employees Housing Foundation.

About other issues discussed by the committee in the meeting, he said the committee asked for the list of those employee who had been working on their present posts for over three years.

It has been observed that many of the CDA employees are working on their posts for over five years despite they have to be transferred after every three years.

The committee directed the CDA to simplify the procedure of getting building completion certificate and make the process of transfer of plots on the basis of attorney more secure.