Islamabad - Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has asked the Capital Development Authority (CDA) to provide it with the record pertaining to the action taken by the authority against illegal occupants and illegal electricity connections to the encroachers as it widened the scope of inquiry into the mushroom growth of katchi abadis in the federal capital, it has been learnt.
Believing that the Islamabad Electric Supply Company (IESCO) officials facilitated the illegal occupants of the state land in previous years, the FIA has decided to investigate the IESCO officials, said sources in the CDA yesterday.
Citing case history (inquiry no 49/2013 against officers/officials of IESCO, CDA, ICT and others (private persons) etc), the investigation agency has written a letter to the CDA high-ups to provide the relevant record which also included list of illegal occupants and details of litigation (if any) in this regard.
The FIA has named the departments of CDA which have been complicit in the spread of illegal settlements in the city’s green belts. The FIA claims that officials from a wide range of the CDA and other government departments may also have helped the inhabitants of the settlements to procure vital utility services, including electricity, water supply, telephone and gas connections. In a complete disregard to the federal cabinet decision of 2004, the government departments continued giving connections to the unauthorised katchi abadis and housing societies, causing mushroom growth of illegal housing projects in the federal capital.
The federal cabinet had, in a meeting on May 19, 2004, asked the departments as Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA), Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) and Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) that they should not provide connections to the housing schemes which do not comply with the zoning laws in the capital’s Zone II, III and IV unless an NOC is obtained by the applicant from CDA but the applicants continued getting the same without NOC.
The FIA had also sought details of the officials who remained posted in the directorates of environment, security and vigilance, enforcement, land and estate management, water supply and sewerage during the last three years. The FIA has also sought other relevant records which could help it determine the scope and quantum of the alleged assistance of the officials of the authority to the illegal occupants in sector H-9 and H-10 of the capital, housing two settlements. The agency is conducting a high profile enquiry against officers and officials who are involved in providing assistance to the illegal occupants in the ICT. Some months back, the FIA had booked over 40 CDA officials in this connection.