RDA to get fourth chief in five months

ISLAMABAD : The Rawalpindi Development Authority (RDA), which has a large number of private housing societies and housing schemes under its control, is going to get its fourth director general in just five months.

The average stay of every director general during this period has been very brief, a close look at their tenures shows. On every occasion, cases relating to one housing society or the other owned by influential persons became the primary reason for the removal of successive RDA chiefs.Amara Khan, later appointed the director general of the Peshawar Development Authority, was transferred out as RDA chief on December 15, 2020. Maqbool Ahmad Dhawla, who was serving as the head of the Koh-e-Suleman Development Authority, Dera Ghazi Khan, immediately replaced her. Dhawla was removed after only two months on February 20, 2021. Capt (retd) Abdul Sattar Isani, who replaced him, was transferred two days ago and relinquished his charge on Wednesday. A new RDA chief is being appointed to fill the post. Isani’s removal has nothing to do with the aborted Rawalpindi Ring Road (R3) project, although the RDA is the main agency behind that undertaking. However, his predecessor Amara Khan’s name figures negatively in the minority fact-finding report on the R3 written by of the Rawalpindi Commissioner Gulzar Shah.

Isani was given marching orders only a few hours after he sealed a sub-office (not the main office) and the social media centre of a housing project for its non-compliance with RDA by-laws. The housing society in question has embarked on a massive expansion along the aborted R3 project.

An informed official told The News that Isani vigorously worked to prevail upon all the housing societies under his domain to transfer roads, parks, mosques etc. to the RDA’s name, which is mandatory under the law. The reason is that the RDA and not the societies owned these facilities.

The official said that the primary purpose of such action was to ensure that the owners of the housing schemes did not later sell the land earmarked for such facilities as residential or commercial plots. Nearly 40pc of the total land of the approved plan is thus transferred to the development authority, as is the case everywhere in Punjab under the law.

“Isani often referred to Prime Minister Imran Khan’s statements about looking after the interests of overseas Pakistanis who invest in real estate in housing schemes to ensure that they are not swindled. He regularly cracked down on societies that were found to be defrauding expatriates by presenting a false picture about their project,” the official said.

The RDA in a letter to the company secretary of the housing society in question — a copy of which is available with The News — directed it to “refrain from misleading publicity by referring to your scheme location in ‘Islamabad’ and to stop using the name of your town as ‘. . . Islamabad’ in the publicity through electronic, print and social media as well as on the allotment letters. Further, you are also directed to stop the publicity of your scheme against the approved layout plan [LOP] by referring to ‘overseas block’ which is not approved in the LOP.”

The letter added: “You are also directed vide this office letters dated September 22, 2018, Dec 16, 2020 and March 3, 2021 to stop the publicity over and above the approved area of your scheme through print, electronic and social media and on your company’s website by referring to the approved area of the scheme as 55,000 kanals and land of ... equal to 80,000 kanals which is absolutely wrong and against the facts.”

According to the letter, the “RDA has now again observed the usage of scheme name as ‘. . . Islamabad’ as well as displaying of LOP on your company website of large area other than the approved LOP from RDA, which is violation of Punjab Private Housing Schemes & Land Sub-Division Rules-2010 as the status of the proposed extension area is illegal and unauthorized as you have obtained the approval of the scheme over an area of 7,376.45 kanal only in villages ... of Rawalpindi. The overseas block is also shown in advertisements on the website whereas no overseas block has been approved by RDA; by this way you are also cheating the overseas Pakistanis.”

The letter said this act of illegal marketing of a project is in violation of the approved layout and is highly objectionable and tantamount to misleading the general public by wrongly declaring the approved/extension area. “Therefore, you are strictly directed to stop the misleading publicity advertisement being carried out on print, electronic and social media by referring to its wrong area that should be stopped. In case of non-compliance legal action would be initiated against the owners/sponsors as per law and approval of scheme granted may be cancelled/withdrawn.”

There are hundreds of illegal housing societies in the RDA’s jurisdiction like there are thousands of irregular, illegal and fake schemes throughout Punjab. Last month, the Punjab government issued an ordinance, dubbed as a unique NRO to the real estate sector, providing for the initiation of a legal process to regularise such societies after the payment of small fines and minor penalties.

The ordinance set up a commission to examine the matter of private housing schemes and land subdivisions that are being developed or have been developed in an irregular manner without the approval of the competent authority and to provide for their regularisation to alleviate the grievances of those affected.

In the case of a non-conforming land use violation, a fine of only 2pc of the residential value as per the applicable valuation table [Deputy Commissioner’s] rate or the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) rate will be imposed. For missing parks and open spaces violations, a fine of two times the value of the deficient land as per its residential value in the applicable valuation table will be payable. For a missing graveyard, a fine of two times the value of the deficient land as per its residential value in the applicable valuation table will be paid. Or alternate land for a graveyard within a radius of up to 5km from the illegal scheme will be provided.