ISLAMABAD, Aug 28: The new cabinet to be formed by Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz will decide the issue of ban on constructions in Zone-III and IV of Islamabad in its first meeting, a source told Dawn.
The source said the previous cabinet had also taken up the issue in its last meeting, however, due to shortage of time, the matter could not be discussed.
The ban on new constructions in Zone-III and Zone-IV was imposed on the directives of the cabinet as the CDA requested it to decide whether the illegal constructions in these areas should be demolished or regularized. The cabinet then directed the deputy commissioner Islamabad, Tariq Mehmood Pirzada, to impose a ban on new constructions till final decision of the cabinet.
The new cabinet is likely to be constituted in the next week with some new members, who will fill the vacant portfolios, the source said.
He said the authority would request the cabinet to approve amendments to the CDA Ordinance-1960. The cabinet meeting will also discuss the land disposal policy, encroachment and illegal constructions in the capital.
The CDA will also raise the issue of illegal constructions like Bani Gala residential area, and construction in Golra and Zone-IV, the source said.
In order to remove encroachments, the authority required some amendments to its laws. Besides, it also required permission of the federal cabinet for providing alternative land to the people on whose land it was developing new sectors.
The source said the CDA had proposed some amendments to its outdated master plan, which was made in 1960. Approval of the cabinet is also required in this regard. He said some 20,000 acres owned by CDA had been encroached upon in different areas, but due to some legal constraints and weak laws, the occupied land had not been vacated so far.
However, he said, illegal occupation of most of the CDA land that fell in the periphery of Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) could not be ended without the assistance of ICT administration.
The interior ministry has directed the ICT administration to provide support to the CDA in resolving the issue, they added.
It also ordered the authority to make some amendments to the CDA Ordinance 1960 so that a noose could be tightened around the encroachers, the source said.
A CDA official told Dawn that the authority had completed formalities for implementation of a contingency plan for removal of unauthorized constructions from green areas of service road (west) of sector F-11 and G-11.
The enforcement directorate of the CDA has been directed that the problem of illegal possession of land and mushroom construction activities in Zone-IV and other parts of the rural area of the ICT should be overcome.