IHC orders FIA to probe CDA land scam

[Salman]

IHC orders FIA to probe CDA land scam

ISLAMABAD - The officials of the Capital Development Authority (CDA) involved in Park Road land scam are likely to face the music as the Islamabad High Court (IHC) Friday directed the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to take an action against all those involved in the said scam.
Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui was hearing the petition filed by Baqir Hussain Shah, the owner of the land situated at Park Road in Chattha Bakhtawar. The counsel for the petitioner, Raja Inam Ameen Minhas, told the court that his client had purchased 44 kanals of land in the said area and on June 6, 2008, he requested the revenue office of Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) for the land’s demarcation.
He said on October 10, 2009, the CDA land and rehabilitation director ordered for a second demarcation of his land and its report. He said the second report also did not point out any encroachment by the owner of said land.
He maintained that his client, with the due permission of CDA officials, removed the ditches and made a retaining wall to save his land from a nearby drain. Then, he said, the owner sold some of the land to different buyers who constructed their houses there, he explained.
Minhas told the court that FIA deputy director Mohammad Sajjad Haider, an NRO beneficiary and ex-staff officer with Interior Minister Rehman Malik, who was demanding a share in the said land, later initiated an inquiry of the matter and was threatening the owner of dire consequence. However, the counsel for the FIA dismissed the allegations of the petitioner. Upon that, Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddique dismissed the petition of the owner of the land.