CDA not allotting plots to retired employees on merit

[Lahore_Real_Estate]

ISLAMABAD - The retired employees of the Capital Development Authority (CDA) are running from pillar to post for getting the same balloting criteria for plots set for retired and in-service employees. The retirees say they should not be discriminated against as they have served the CDA for many years. Several retired CDA employees told Pakistan Today that in 2004, the CDA allotted around 4000 plots for its employees. However the cut off date for the scheme was set at January 21, 2011 which did not allow the employees who served in authority before the said date to be allotted plots. Raja Saleem, a retired employee said: “In 2006 and 2007 the former employees approached the Supreme Court and the Lahore High Court (LHC) Rawalpindi bench. Both the courts gave their decisions in our favour while directing the CDA chief to resolve the matter.”
He said after the 2008 decision, the CDA Chairman at that time, Kamran Lashari announced in a CDA board meeting that plots would be allotted to retired employees. In 2010 the former CDA chairman Imtiaz Iniyat Elahi claimed that the plots had been set aside for the retirees, and ballots would be cast to allocate the plots. However, after looking at the ballot lists displayed a few days ago, the former employees said the authority had not allotted them plots of the same value as the serving employees.
The retirees said their meager pensions, combined with the rising inflation made it difficult for them to make ends meet and many had pinned their hopes on the plots as the solution for their financial problems. “I have four daughters and want to marry them off. My pension is not enough and I hoped that receiving a plot would solve some of my problems,” said Sultan Khan a former CDA employee. He added that after in the CDA for 30 years, he was now receiving Rs 6000 in pension.
Some of CDA’s current employees feared they would be dealt with unjustly in the in balloting the plots and took up the case with the Islamabad High Court (IHC). Some low rank CDA employees told the court through their counsel that they were serving in the civic body from BPS-14 to 16 and fell into category-III for the allotments.
They informed the court that the officials who were upgraded to BS-14 to BS-16 could not be included in the list of category-III employees because the up-gradation process was not the same as a promotion. They said the CDA chief also accepted the petition on December 8th 2011 and it was ordered that the ballot list be prepared considering the pay-scales before the CDA employees were up-graded.