ISLAMABAD, Nov 16: Housing industry may be in crisis in some developed economies, in the Pakistani capital it is booming - at least the price of land.

And the smell of money has made the Capital Development Authority (CDA) and the National Housing Authority (NHA) suggest to the government to revive the Islamabad New City (INC) scheme which the two had launched in 1996 over a vast area in Zone V but had to abandon the venture after new power players emerged on the scene.

An insider told Dawn on Sunday that the local administration (ICT) had reported to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) that after settling claims of some allottees who had been sold plots in the aborted INC, the CDA and NHA still possess 14,000 kanals of land.

Both the state entities now oppose liquidation of their INC scheme because the land they were sold for Rs10,000 to Rs80,000 per kanal in 1996 now fetches between Rs500,000 to Rs800,000. They see huge profits even after settling the remaining claims and so are keen to resurrect the dead Islamabad New City scheme.

But the bonanza-in-waiting has also attracted the private sector, especially the scheming ones in it. Rumours are that the private parties who had jumped into the game early by purchasing land in the area designated for INC in 1996 and sold it later to INC developers are pulling political strings to retake their land.

They are pinning their hopes on the request the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan has made to the Lahore High Court to allow it to liquidate MG Hertz, the main company that was developing the INC for CDA and NHA.

Meanwhile, the two public sector entities behind the scheme have advised the government to revive the scheme.

The government happens to be headed by the same party which was in power when the scheme was launched in 1996.

The proposal presented to the housing ministry for reviving the scheme runs counter to the stand of the ministry that the land acquired for INC 12 years ago was insufficient to accommodate all the persons who had invested in the scheme.

The project was launched in 1996 by the CDA and National Housing Authority with partnership of a private firm, offering attractive opportunities for plot owners.

As the scheme was launched by the government, people not only from inside the country but also from abroad had applied for plots.

An official of the CDA, who did not want to be named, said the issue was also under investigation by National Accountability Bureau (NAB), while CDA and NAB had jointly conducted re-demarcation of the land and observed that the NHA, an allied department of the housing ministry, had taken possession of over 14,000 kanals of scattered land.

The land has two compact pieces of 800 kanals and 400 kanals for development of three housing schemes in the Zone-V, where minimum required land for a housing scheme is 400 kanals in compact shape.

The official said the land available with the NHA was so big that even after providing plots to the affected people about 50 per cent of the remaining plots could be sold to the new buyers.

The INC had two phases: one was dealt by the housing ministry and the other by the CDA. As many as 5,000 people had been promised plots in the project. About Rs162 million was deposited with the CDA by over 2,000 people in the second phase which was reimbursed by the authority several years ago, while an amount of Rs300 million deposited in Phase-I by 3,000 plot seekers is still with the NHA.

When the affected people moved the LHC demanding reimbursement of their money, the NHA requested the court to allow liquidation of the land which it claimed was in a scattered shape.