ISLAMABAD – Though the Capital Development Authority (CDA) has submitted a report to the Suddle Commission which states that around 1,400 kanals of civic agency’s land located in Zone-IV has been encroached by Bahria Town, in the meantime independent observers are questioning if the encroachment issue has any connection with Riaz-Arslan graft scandal.
The one-man Commission appointed by the Supreme Court to probe Malik Riaz and Dr Arslan’s alleged business deal sought a detailed report from the Capital Development Authority the other day.
The CDA was asked to inform the status of land near the proposed Kurri Model Village and if the Bahria Town had encroached upon the land than what steps so far the Authority had taken to retrieve its land.
The Commission has sought the report in the backdrop of a recent revelation made by CDA Counsel Nazir Jawad that Bahria Town had encroached upon 1,200 kanals of land near the Kurri village before the Islamabad High Court during the course of proceedings on November 14, 2012.
In report, CDA has admitted that 1400 kanals of its land located in Zone-IV and near the CDA’s Park Enclave and Kuri Village has been encroached by Bahria Town.
“In the report we have mentioned two ways how CDA would resolve the encroachment issue with the Bahria Town. Bahria Town will be given two options, either to vacate the land or pay the price of encroached land,” said an official who prepared report.
“Bahria Town will be charged Rs 12 million per Kanal. It is the same price that the Authority has earlier charged against one kanal of land in the Park Enclave,” official said. This shows that according to CDA’s estimates Bahria Town has encroached land worth Rs 16.8 billion.
Official sources said that Bahria Town had already started selling commercial plots carved out on encroached land. The CDA through its report also informed the Suddle Commission that a committee comprising of officials of the ICT Administration and CDA would undertake demarcation of land in the area.
“Demarcation of land will be done to ascertain the exact scale of encroachments in the area,” official added.
Informed sources disclosed that CDA Director Land, Fayyaz Sultan Kayani, was earlier asked to prepare the report sought by the Suddle Commission, but he (Chaudhry) refused saying he had some personal issues. Later, the task was assigned to CDA DC (Revenue) Saqib Majeed.
Although CDA has rightly informed the high-powered Commission about encroachments on its land by the powerful Bahria Town, throughout the day concerned CDA officials found asking the linkage between the encroachment issue and Arsalan-Riaz business deal.
“It is 100 per cent true that our (CDA) land is encroached upon, but it has nothing to do with the graft case,” commented an official. While another official termed it a move to malign property tycoon for his behaviour towards the one-man Commission during its proceedings.
“It’s nothing more than a pressure building tactic,” another said. However, all the officials were of the view that costly encroached land should be retrieved at earliest.