Land compensation case: IHC summons CDA’s director

[Salman]

Land compensation case: IHC summons CDA’s director


ISLAMABAD, March 15: Justice Noorul Haq N Qureshi of Islamabad High Court (IHC) has summoned director land of the Capital Development Authority (CDA) on Friday in land compensation case of affected villagers of sectors H-16 and I-17.

As Justice Qureshi resumed hearing of the case on Thursday, he expressed annoyance over lethargic attitude of the CDA officials in matters related to land compensation. “Is there any mechanism in CDA for acquiring land from the owners; it seems that CDA acquires land and after selling it on higher price, compensates the affected owners,” he remarked.

CDA authorities must keep in mind the actual cost of the land and the way to compensate the owners before acquiring the land.

The authority should have adequate resources to compensate the affected people, he added.

He directed the CDA authorities to expedite the matter otherwise CDA chairman would be summoned in court.

On this, Deputy Commissioner CDA, Najeeb Aslam told the court that he had already written a letter to directorate of land for expediting the compensation cases on March 7, but, so far, did not receive any reply from them.

He requested the court that instead of summoning the chairman, it should rather summon the director land because he is the most relevant person in the matters related to the compensation.

Malik Tariq Mehmood Noon, one of the counsels of affected villagers told the court that CDA officials were trying to apply delaying tactics in order to prolong the case.

He also told Dawn that CDA had to pay Rs17 billion to the affected parties for some 16,500 kanals land it acquired for the two sectors.

He said the authority had paid Rs3 billion to the influential investors for their 2800 kanal land but seemed reluctant to compensate the real owners of the land – their clients.