CDA still unable to get its flats vacated from Islamabad Police

Islamabad: It is almost a decade now that the Capital Development Authority (CDA) has been trying to take over possession of 200 ‘A-type’ flats, which have been taken over mostly by the officials of the Islamabad Police.

According to the CDA records, 129 of these flats out of 200 are under adverse possession of the Islamabad Police, 34 flats have been taken over by various federal government department officials, 31 are under unauthorized occupation of CDA employees while 6 flats are in possession of private or non-government employees.

The Authority started construction of these flats back in 1994 as the first phase of a plan according to which whole of the Sector G-6, the oldest sector of the federal capital, was to be reconstructed, and the number of housing units of all categories to be increased at least four times to what were the existing. And that plan was only for the houses and quarters built for the federal government employees.

These 200 ‘A-type’ flats were completed in 1997 at three different locations in Sector G-6/1, the largest number near Aabpara Market. However, the residents of the nearby ‘A-type’ government quarters refused to shift into the newly constructed flats, which would have enabled the CDA raze the dilapidated old houses and clear more space for construction of more flats. Thus the CDA found itself stuck in a deep rut and is still unable to pull out of it.

These flats remained vacant till the year 2005 and received first occupants when the displaced persons from Kashmir came down to Islamabad after the devastating earthquake. However, they didn’t stay for a long period and returned to their homes in 2007 when the rehabilitation and reconstruction process started.

But these flats didn’t remain vacant for any longer period of time because the ‘Lal Masjid Operation’ was launched. To strengthen the security arrangements, reserves from Punjab Police were called as well as from other parts of the country.

The Punjab Police reserves were accommodated in theseflats because of their larger numbers and also because these flats are located in close proximity to Lal Masjid around which the siege was laid. And when the Punjab Police officials left after the Lal Masjid operation was over, these flats were conveniently taken over the Islamabad Police officials!

Since then the CDA is trying to regain the possession of these flats but the trespassers, as they are being referred to, have gone into litigation against the Authority and a couple of years ago the Supreme Court of Pakistan remanded these cases back to the Islamabad High.

The matter remained with the Sub-Committee of the National Assembly Standing Committee on Housing and Works since 16th January 2017 but the matter still remains unresolved. The CDA is pressing for regaining possession of these flats because the Authority itself has a big shortage of accommodation for its employees. According to the sources there are 16,000 employees in the CDA out of which only 2,200 could be provided official accommodation.

The issue keeps popping up every now and then in the official meetings in the Ministry of Housing and Works and other relevant forums but the fact remains that the CDA still is unable get rid of these trespassers from these flats even as over a decade has passed!