By Usman Manzoor
ISLAMABAD: The Capital Development Authority (CDA) has cancelled the 1,000 allotment letters of plots in an upcoming model village, issued in two days by a director, who is a friend of the prime minister, but the cancellation is an exercise in futility, as the same letters will be reissued to the same people because the list has not been amended, CDA has confirmed.
Sources said some influential figures, including a powerful federal minister, some members of parliament and an informal monitor of the CDA, are involved in this mega land scam. Chairman Capital Development Authority Imtiaz Inayat Elahi, while talking to The News, said that he had cancelled the entire lot of allotment letters and now has directed to issue the allotment letters to the actual allottees only who will have to be present in person before the CDA officials.
But surprisingly, he said there was no bogus allotment letter issued and there were
no fake entries in the awards list. “The issue of award list is different because it contains the names of only those who are residents of Kuri,” the chairman said, adding: “Those people who are questioning the award list are not coming up with concrete evidence”.
He mentioned that any fake entry in the award list could be checked at any stage. Details reveal that Director Land CDA, Dr Waseem Shamshad, who hails from Multan set a record by issuing 500 allotment letters for residential plots on one single day and another 400 the next day.
The said officer issued a total of 3,632 allotment letters to the affectees of Kuri Model village of which more than 2,400 did not have the approval. It was also reported that 2,410 allotment letters were dispatched from the CDA’s office by the official concerned named Younis; however, a total of 1,222 allotment letters were dispatched from the house of Dr Wasim Shamshad.
The authority’s dispatch register has the entries of these 3,632 allotment letters, but no one has any idea if any number of allotment letters were issued besides those reflected on the dispatch register.
The complaints about the fake entries in the award list have been lodged with the office of chairman CDA, members Estate and the National Accountability Bureau Sources in Capital Development Authority say that the cancellation of allotment letters was just eyewash as CDA will again allot the plots to the same people.
“If the award list is correct then what was the irregularity in issuing 500 or 400 allotment letters in one day,” said an official of CDA adding: “The problem was with the award list”. Assistant Director Khalid Khokhar, who was part of the survey team which compiled the award list, said that the list was genuine.
But Khokhar, who did not see anything wrong in the whole affair, passed the buck to Tehsildar Mian Aftab for identifying the affectees. He said that there are 7,246 people who have been registered in the award list of whom 5,000 would be given the plots while the rest would only be given the compensation of the debris of their houses.
He said that there was no question of issuing allotment letters to outsiders because those in the award list were local people. The Capital Development Authority had announced Model Village Kuri some time back and the land was acquired for setting up this Model Village for housing units each measuring 30x70 feet, to be allotted to the local people on priority from whom the CDA has acquired the land.
It was the CDA chairman, who himself recently revealed to The News that in his absence Shamshad issued 500 allotment letters for residential plots on one single day and another 400 the next day. Wasim Shamshad is a DMG officer, who was brought to Islamabad following the prime minister’s verbal instructions despite some pending inquiries against him in the Punjab anti-corruption department. (TN)
