I find it distasteful that the CDA Chairman, Sheikh Anser Aziz, should tell the Senate Standing Committee on Cabinet Secretariat that the purchasers of apartments in One Constitution Avenue will be paid compensation for the apartments they have purchased. The 240 owners of the apartments find themselves in the situation where due to the complicity of the CDA – the term used by the Hon’ble Judge in the BNP v CDA case – the owners of the apartment have been defrauded; again a term used by the Hon’ble Judge in his judgment. CDA is very much part of the problem, not the solution. The apartments have been legally purchased by the buyers with the full knowledge of the CDA, a number of us made direct enquiries from the CDA before buying the apartments and were assured it was an approved project and we should go ahead without any concerns.
The apartments have been built with the money paid by the owners, which includes 79 overseas Pakistanis, including me, who brought hard earned and valuable foreign exchange into the country. Part of our money was also used by the developer to pay the CDA for the land. It is very unfortunate that the CDA is so keen to get its hand on our apartments instead of completing the project and handing it over to us, the legitimate owners.
Ehsan Mani (London, United Kingdom)