islamabad - The illegal use of residential buildings for commercial purposes is a big question mark over the efficiency of the concerned departments as such violations are going on unabated for the past several years. A survey of various areas of the capital city revealed that majority of the residential premises were being used for commercial purposes including guest houses, beauty parlours, health clubs, property offices and much more due to the negligence of the authorities concerned.

 A resident of G-13, Muhammad Hammad said that such trend was flourishing day by day, causing trouble for the residents leaving them in a state of disturbance and nuisance all the time as the authorities concerned were too reluctant in dealing with this common illegal practice.

A businessman Muhammad Hayyat says that such non-conforming use of residential spaces is causing huge loss to business community working in commercial areas paying commercial rates and earning less, while the violators doing business in residential areas were paying domestic rates whereas the Capital Development Authority (CDA) and Federal Government Employees Housing Foundation (FGEHF) didn’t even bother to take action against such violators.

The citizens have questioned why the authorities concerned have not taken action against such violation and claimed that such illegal practices were taking place with the help of some employees of the concerned departments which were taking benefits for supporting such practices. 

The concerned departments have the authority to cancel plots as well as removing the utility services of residential places found involved in commercial activities as well as imposing fines, but such civic bodies were reluctant to do so.

The residents of federal capital have appealed the authorities concerned to ban all such illegal commercial activities in residential areas and urged for a permanent barrier against such practices.

When contacted in this regard an official of CDA said that action was being taken on the directions of Supreme Court of Pakistan (SCP) against illegal usage of private residential buildings for commercial purposes added that notices have already been served to such violators, while the action will be started soon. He disclosed that recently operation clean up was being conducted against encroachments without any discrimination that will continue till the last encroachment removed added that operation against illegal commercial usage of residential buildings will also be started soon.