Islamabad: Opening of new sectors put off

[Naveed Yaseen]

The financial meltdown confronting the Capital Development Authority (CDA) has dealt another blow to the residents of federal capital as the civic body has held back the opening of new residential sectors despite the fact the capital city is facing worst housing shortage.

The backlog of housing units in the federal capital is swelling day by day and people are forced to bear the house rents those have skyrocketed to an unbearable limits and the experts describe it merely the inefficiency of the city fathers and lack of will among the top brass.

According to a CDA official, some officials are striving to open new sectors and get CDA land vacated from unlawful possession, but they cannot succeed, as the process lacks political support and people’s confidence.

The authority has recently cleared two sectors I-11 and I-12, but the controversy persists, as some of the people say it was an unfair deal while some other have moved court. Due to lack of the same will, the authority is facing some impediments in vacation of Kuri village.

CDA spokesperson Syed Mustafain Kazmi said the authority cannot open new residential sectors due to the lack of resources and secondly because the authority has kept the development of stalled sectors on top priority. “We cannot open new residential sector in current fiscal. We are preferring to develop stalled sectors as their development was facing some impediments,” he added.

The basic reason behind delay in the acquisition of land is that the authority never bothered to vacate the land immediately after the provision of compensation to the affectees. After sitting on CDA land for years, despite getting compensation, the people have started demanding compensation even for their children who have now grown young.

It is unfortunate that CDA could not develop any residential sector for more than two decades despite the deteriorating shortage of housing units and the authority is one of the richest development bodies across the country.

According to the spokesperson, the development of new sectors involves huge amount of funds that is unaffordable for CDA during the prevailing circumstances, so it has decided to put off any new opening until the development of old sectors is completed.

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