CDA unlawfully transfers plot to bureaucrat

ISLAMABAD: Capital Development Authority (CDA) has gone out of the way to please an influential bureaucrat based in Islamabad by shifting his 500 square yards plot to a more lucrative place on main Margalla Road despite rejecting the same request twice when the bureaucrat was holding less powerful post in Punjab, The News has learnt.
According to sources, the planning division of CDA has recently approved shifting of a residential plot allotted to powerful officer to an especially-created location in Sector D-12. The bureaucrat was originally allotted plot number 57-G in Sector D-12/2 out of Federal Government Employees Housing Foundation’s quota. The original plot was located along a 30 feet wide link road. However, later, a plot number 128 was especially created for him in the same sector. New plot is ideally located along the 200 feet wide main double road that is known as Margalla Road. Sources said the shifting of plot had drastically raised the market value of the plot by several millions.
It is also being alleged that the new plot has been created at an area reserved for development of green belt and left-over area. A decision of the Islamabad High Court bars the CDA from plots creation at land reserved for green belts.
While contacted by The News, the member planning CDA Waseem Ahmad who approved the relocation said the shifting of plot was justified as the allottee had requested to change the location. “We are routinely approached by the VIPs among bureaucracy and judiciary for change of plot location for some reasons,” he claimed. When asked if the facility is only available to VVIPs, he said the authority had shifted around 3,000 plots as revealed in a recent meeting of Public Accounts Committee (PAC). However, the PAC had strongly criticised CDA in its recent meeting for corruption worth billion through illegal allotments of the plot and other irregularities.
Waseem Ahmad said that some lobbies within the authority were conspiring against him by leaking secret information to media. He claimed that the new plot number, 128, was not created on the green belt as the area was marked as left-over area.
However, sources said the change of plot was not a routine exercise in CDA and the authority did not approve shifting of plot locations without compelling reasons. In the case of powerful bureaucrat, there was no justification for change of location as the earlier plot was also fit for residence.
Sources said the previous surveys of the original plot had revealed that one of the four corners of the said plot was in slight depression of five feet but the CDA experts said such little depression did not entitle creation of new plot. The fact is that one-third of D-12/3 plots are located in depressions as deep as 15 to 20 feet.
Interestingly, the sources said the same bureaucrat had previously twice requested to switch plots while he was serving in Punjab. His requests were conveniently rejected by CDA at that time citing the rules that did not allow change of plot without valid reasons for example if the plot falls on a nullah or on a graveyard. But game changed early last year when the said officer was posted on a powerful position in Islamabad.
“The same requests that were not being entertained by CDA all of a sudden found support through Planning Division of CDA. The plot was changed and the influential officer was taken on a property hunt personally by the Member Planning Waseem Ahmad to show him available plots,” a source said adding that the plot chosen by the bureaucrat was marked by the planning wing immediately and later allotted.
“This should have been done on the basis of a survey and equity demanded that other such requests pending before Housing Foundation and CDA should have been examined first,” he added.
Sources said that several thousands of allottees of Housing Foundation were sitting without plots, and projects like Kurri, Bhara Kahu and G-14 were stuck but the housing foundation was focusing on accommodating the powerful bureaucrats.