CDA defends allotment of plots to employees

[Salman]

ISLAMABAD: The Capital Development Authority (CDA) on Monday informed Islamabad High Court that it has the right to allot plots to its employees because employees of other departments were also provided a number of facilities free of cost.

When Justice Mohammad Anwar Khan Kasi resumed hearing of a petition filed by Syed Liaquat Binori seeking cancellation of the allotment of plots to CDA employees, the civic agency’s legal adviser Mohammad Ramzan Chaudhry maintained that government departments run their businesses in accordance with their own rules and regulations. He said Pakistan International Airlines gives free tickets to its employees, Pakistan Telecommunication Corporation (PTCL) offers landline services and Wapda also gives free units to its employees; therefore, the petitioner should not raise any objection if the authority allots plots to its employees.

Aslam Khaki, the petitioner’s counsel, contended that CDA was bound to develop the city on the acquired land and being the trusty of the land it was its responsibility to be fair.

He accused the CDA of usurping the public property to benefit its high-ups, influential persons and employees.

He said CDA had introduced a discriminatory five per cent quota in the Land Disposal Regulations 2005 for the allotment of land to its employees.

CDA also blackmailed the housing foundations and housing societies and managed to reserve for itself 20 per cent quota in their plots, he added.

Referring to earlier allotments of 4,500 plots, Mr Khaki said this damaged the city’s environment because a number of open spaces and green belts were converted into residential plots.

He said the CDA was going to allot about 4,000 more plots to its employees at much lower than the market rate, adding it was again a violation of the constitution.

He requested the court to declare the plot allotment policy of the CDA as legal and order retrieval of the already allotted plots. The court after hearing both the sides deferred the matter till January.

The CDA’s legal adviser told Dawn that if the authority withdrew its policy to allot plots to its employees, it would badly affect the smooth functioning of the system.

He said the superior judiciary in various instances had heard identical petitions but accepted the CDA’s plea regarding the plot allotment policy.

The employees who rendered decades of services to CDA are given plots on the settled rates and the authority is not throwing away its plots free of cost, he added.