Housing projects in Islamabad Bahria Town, CDA reach settlement

[Salman]

Housing projects in Islamabad Bahria Town, CDA reach settlement

ISLAMABAD, April 18: After reaching an out-of-court settlement with Bahria Town, the Capital Development Authority (CDA) on Wednesday gave up its decade-long legal battle with the society enabling it to develop its housing projects in Islamabad.

Barrister Masroor Shah, the chief legal adviser of the CDA, submitted an application to the Islamabad High Court (IHC) judge Justice Mohammad Anwar Khan Kasi seeking withdrawal of Intra Court Appeal (ICA) filed against the order of a single bench of the Lahore High Court (LHC) in which it had allowed the society to go-ahead with the projects.

The society plans to develop its projects in Zone V consisting of rural areas of the city and the Soan River.

The legal adviser told the court that because of the settlement with the management of the society, the authority was no more interested in pursuing the case.

According to the court documents, the management of Bahria Town filed a petition in the LHC in 2003 in which it challenged its undertaking to the CDA agreeing to spare some 700 t0 1000 space along the Soan river. The society clamed that the undertaking was taken by the CDA forcibly.

According to the petition, the society had submitted on May 5, 1998 a layout plan of its phase VII falling in Islamabad’s Zone V to the CDA for NOC. The authority approved the plan of four phases and directed the housing society to complete formalities for the rest.

The petition said the management of Bahria Town had in this regard purchased the required land measuring 898 kanals.

The petition alleged that the CDA then involved the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in the matter and both organisations of the federal government through the ‘army monitoring team’ forced Malik Riaz Hussain, the chief executive of Bahria Town, to sign the undertaking.

LHC Judge Justice Akhtar Shabbir in his judgment on July 8, 2004 declared the undertaking between CDA and Bahria Town illegal.

He not only restrained the CDA from taking coercive measures against the housing society and from damaging its projects but also directed the authority to approve the layout plans.

Following the LHC single bench order, the CDA’s legal adviser, Malik Mohammad Nawaz, filed an intra court appeal (ICA) in the LHC the same year in which he informed the court that the management of Bahria Town had approached the army monitoring team and the CDA only briefed them about the ground realities.

The ICA said the housing society was not only developing its residential scheme without the approval of the CDA but also delivering plots’ possession to the clients.

The ICA alleged Bahria Town was violating the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) zoning regulations and did major construction in Zone V without the approval of the CDA.

The appeal pointed out that the undertaking of Bahria Town was a result of extensive negotiations and compromise that was reached between the CDA and the society to protect Kahuta Industrial Triangle and all the inhabitants on the left bank of Soan River from floods.

CDA chief legal adviser Masroor Shah, when contacted, said the authority and the management of Bahria Town wanted to get rid of this unnecessary decade-long litigation.

He said the private housing society was now at liberty to develop its schemes in Islamabad in accordance with the law.

He said the CDA and Bahria Town authorities had settled their disputes through negotiations and now the authority would not create hurdles to the housing society’s schemes.