DHA Lahore Pakistan Bahria Town Map Plots For Sale Property Prices

AFTER its failure to drain water from several residential localities of the provincial metropolis, Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa) has started shifting the responsibility of draining rainwater from private housing schemes. A high level meeting chaired by Director General LDA at Wasa head office was held on Sunday in which representatives of private housing schemes were also present. During the meeting, DG LDA made it clear that if a private housing society had not paid trunk infrastructure charges and maintenance charges to Wasa then clearance of rainwater from it was not the responsibility of Wasa. He asked the societies to immediately pay these charges to Wasa to avoid future inconvenience and said that in future no housing society could lay down its sewage system without the approval of Wasa and LDA.

According to Wasa record, out of 208 private housing societies, only 100 societies are not linked with Wasa’s trunk sewer system, he said, adding Wasa was providing technical assistance to these societies. He revealed that 40 schemes were without trunk sewer while Wasa was not providing any technical assistance to them while 24 schemes were draining out their sewer and rainwater through Wasa’s system.

Meanwhile, muggy weather continued to prevail in the provincial capital on Sunday and high humidity level forced majority of the people to remain indoor. Daily MET office report said maximum temperature recorded in the city was 36.2 C while minimum was 28.5 C. Humidity level in the morning was 82 percent and in evening it was 60 percent. MET officials said a well marked low had developed over North of Bay of Bengal while a weak seasonal low lay over Balochistan and adjoining areas. They predicted fairly widespread thunderstorm and rains with heavy falls at isolated places over the country during the next 72 hours. They further said that mainly humid and dry weather were expected over most parts of the country.

Thursday, February 18, 2010
By Ali Raza

LAHORE

THE Frontier Works Organisation’s team, engaged in developing the Avenue-1 Housing Scheme of the Lahore Development Authority (LDA) on the Raiwind Road, has left the project due to the ongoing litigation between the authority and stakeholders.

Sources said the delay of about four years in the completion of the mega project, launched for providing housing facilities to government employees, had raised serious doubts over the performance of the authority, especially its legal wing, which took the matter casually without considering the huge investment of public in the project.

When introduced, cost of the scheme was about worth Rs 3.5 billion and it was scheduled to be completed in 2005. Later, the completion date was extended to 2007 but in 2010 the fate of over 10,000 allottees was still hanging in balance.

To complete the work steadily, the LDA had engaged the Frontier Works Organisation (FWO) in development work of the scheme. The scheme comprised over 4,906 plots of one kanal and 6,077 plots of 10 marlas. The LDA awarded the contract to the FWO in the mid of 2004. Sources said award of development contract was also delayed about a year and in the past no LDA official was questioned about the delay. They said that since its conception, the society faced various controversies due to which the development work never gained momentum at any stage.

The sources said that the actual problem, which delayed the completion of the scheme, was that there were a large number of court cases filed against the LDA. These cases included legal suits by seven other housing schemes because the LDA also acquired over 2,500 kanal of their land. They said the LDA had acquired 150 kanals of the Punjab Civil Secretariat Housing Scheme, 185 kanals of the Punjab Board of Revenue Cooperative Housing Society, 360 of the Public Health Engineering Housing Society, 350 of the Islamic Research Scholar Housing Scheme, 500 kanal of the Chiniot Housing Scheme and land of the EME Housing Scheme and the Mumtaz Housing Scheme.

Sources maintained that after the LDA acquired the land of seven housing schemes, they also reached the court and got stay against the authority’s land acquisition and halted the development work. Sources claimed that the litigation cell of the authority had failed in pursuing the cases and eventually the cases remained pending in the courts. They said at present there were a number of stay orders against the scheme and the LDA had to activate its legal cell to vacate these stay orders to complete the scheme.

Other disputes which also delayed the completion of the scheme were illegal encroachments and disputes over the increase in prices of plots, sources said, adding that the LDA had announced the scheme in January 2003, asking for an initial deposit of Rs 216,000 for one-kanal plots and Rs 108,000 for 10-marla plots. The rest was to be paid in six instalments of Rs 54,000 (one-kanal plots) and Rs 27,000 (ten-marla plots) each till October 30, 2004, sources maintained. However, at the end of 2004, the LDA directed the applicants for plots to deposit six extra instalments over which the applicants established a welfare society and started expressing resentment over the increase in the price of the plots by the authority. The welfare body also challenged the LDA on the ground that the authority could not raise the price after starting the scheme and there was no legal room for any such increase.

Sources in the FWO said the organisation’s team, engaged in the scheme, had left work due to the long standing and pending court cases between the LDA and land owners. They said the FWO had completed the development work on the land, which was cleared by the LDA, and FWO was not responsible for the delay in the project. They said the FWO’s unit completing the development work at the scheme was sent to Gujranwala to complete another project. They said presently, the organisation was only working on a drain in the scheme, which was a project of the Punjab government. Sources said that in April 2009, the FWO authorities asked the LDA to hand over full land, otherwise, the organisation would abandon the project. They said that some four days back, the LDA told them regarding acquisition of some more land in the scheme but the organisation refused to start operation again.

Sources further claimed that the FWO had also asked the LDA director general to visit its office in the scheme so that they could brief him about the difficulties and financial losses they were suffering but LDA DG, who visited the scheme, kept the FWO officials waiting for him.

When contacted, the LDA’s spokesman said LDA Director General Omar Rasool had already directed the LDA’s legal wing to vigorously pursue the court cases pertaining to Avenue-1 Housing Scheme. Answering a question about the responsibility of the LDA’s legal cell for not handling the cases properly, he said several influential elements pressurised the authority against contesting cases in courts. He said on Tuesday last, the collector land acquisition completed acquisition of nine kanal land in the scheme and handed over it to the LDA staff for completing the 150 feet wide main road of the society. He said the authority had received a demand note of electricity from the Lahore Electric Supply Company and the LDA would release the money to Lesco within the next few days.

Over a question that LDA recently razed properties of people in the scheme despite the fact that they had stay orders from court, he said the authority did not raze any disputed property. He said only encroachments were razed.

Over a question that the FWO team had stopped operation at the scheme and was shifted to another project in Gujranwala, the LDA spokesman said the contract with the FWO was alive and the LDA DG had given a deadline for six months to the FWO for completing the development work. He said the LDA was in the process of clearing the land, which would be handed over to the FWO for completing the development process and the organisation should complete the entire development process under the contract. When contacted, the FWO spokesman said that the organisation was ready to talk with the LDA over the issue.

ISLAMABAD: At least three leading property developers have allegedly acquired more than 29,650 kanals of public and private land in and around the federal capital through illegal means and misuse of land revenue act and by committing serious violations of human rights and killing innocent citizens.

A conservative estimate based on about 42 complaints suggests that the land developers have illegally occupied more than 13,296 kanals of government land commonly known as ‘shamlat’ and around 10,786 kanals of land owned by individuals and government departments through ‘private militias’, besides getting 5,568 kanals of state land transferred to private parties through manipulated awards in violation of rules and regulations.

The revelations have been made in the report of a judicial inquiry conducted by District and Sessions Judge Mazhar Hussain Minhas and submitted to the Supreme Court of Pakistan. It puts on record scenes of land grabbing seen only in Indian films. It exposes cold-blooded operations conducted by Bahria Town, Defence Housing Authority and Habib Rafique to deprive hundreds of people and the state of valuable land, in connivance with police, revenue authorities and even elements in the lower judiciary.

Going through the 115-page report based on accounts of the victims and eyewitnesses makes one shiver at the thought there appeared to be no law as the land grabbers took occupation of land with complete impunity to make a fortune while legal owners were killed or evicted from their property and their heir implicated in false cases to remain behind bars for years and then forced to sell their remaining property at whatever prices offered by the land mafia.

And the operations spread over many years did not deprive only individuals of their lawful possession but also some equally powerful housing societies and even the state as the government authorities that were supposed to protect lives and property of the common man. A case of state institutions becoming part of the land mafia!

In some incidents even police officials accompanied employees of Bahria Town for taking over possession of land. They unleashed a reign of terror on land owners. Those who resisted forcible occupation of their land were implicated in false cases, the report noted.

At another place, the judicial report said that it was most shocking to observe that the land mafia got 7,405 kanals and 12 marlas of land in village Sihala and village Rawat in favour of DHA through two separate decrees passed by the then civil judge 1st class, Islamabad, without hearing legal owners.

The report said the top builders were found guilty of forcibly acquiring land for their projects by misusing police and revenue department and through their private force using illegal means around pockets of land in different villages.

The Land Acquisition Collector fixed the rate of compensation much less than the prevailing market rate due to which the owners did not want to relinquish possession of their property, but DHA forcibly took possession through their security staff, the report said.

The owners who resisted the forcible occupation of their land were implicated in criminal cases and through police they were forced to surrender the land. Subsequently, the DHA entered into agreements with M/S Patro-Trade Pvt Ltd and Bahria Town for securing the possession of the acquired land. Bahria Town by using its own manpower forcibly occupied the land which was not even acquired by DHA. Islamabad police, particularly Sihala police station, was completely under the influence and control of Malik Riaz Hussain, the chairman of Bahria Town.

At one place, the inquiry report says, some police officials acted as personal employees of Malik Riaz and instead of performing their lawful duty implicated innocent people in false and baseless cases.

Like police, the revenue department was “completely under the thumb of Malik Riaz Hussain”. Revenue officers of his choice are posted in areas where housing projects of Bahria Town are located and they are blindly following the orders of Malik Riaz.

The report said that Imtiaz Pervez Janjua had admitted that he was posted as tehsildar Islamabad in May 1998. Revenue officials of Rawalpindi and Islamabad are committing illegalities with impunity and are not paying any heed even to court orders.

It is a matter of great concern, says the report, that through mutations of ‘Tark-e-Qabza’ for which there is no provision in the Land Revenue Act 1967, shamlat (common land) has been transferred to DHA, Bahria Town and Al-Hamra Pvt Ltd and Al-Hamra Avenues. It goes on to state that through this illegal mechanism, the real owners have been deprived of thousands of kanals of shamlat land in Sihala, Rawat, Kotha Kalan and other villages of the twin cities.The report said that those involved in the illegal business also adopted, in connivance with the revenue staff, the technique of purchasing shamlat from ‘Khana Kasht’ (land record) from the owners in excess of their due shares.

The report said that besides the acquisition of land in 2001 and 2002, DHA has acquired land measuring 5,665 kanals in 18 villages of district Rawalpindi. All the awards were announced by the then DDO Revenue, Rawalpindi, Mohammad Abid.

In the awards, requirements of section 5 and 5-A of the Land Acquisition Act 1984 were dispensed with by the Land Acquisition Collector who admitted that under the pressure of acquiring agency he announced the aforesaid awards urgently without waiting for assessment reports.

The report also said that 7,405 kanals and 12 marlas of land in village Sihala and village Rawat had been transferred by the land mafia in favour of DHA through two separate decrees issued in August 2005 by civil judge Islamabad Huidayatullah Shah.

The order passed by the civil judge is void in the eyes of law and invasion of the rights of the original owners. In fact it is a naked trampling of the valuable rights of the land owners committed by the land mafia in active participation with and connivance of the judicial officer.

The report said: “When original owners are not authorised to use shamlat for any purpose except for the purpose it was reserved, how the plaintiff being a ‘Malik Qabza’ can utilise it for the amenities of its housing projects, like parks and roads.

A witness — Lt Col (retired) Abdul Qadir, Chairman Tuhaffaz Tehreek Zamindaran, Potohar — told the inquiry officer that the developers had a private force under the command of a retired commando officer named Capt Shahid. By using that force they started forcibly occupying land of the people.

He also said that the DPO Rawalpindi had taken a divisional forest officer of south division Rawalpindi to a police station and subjected him to harassment when he complained that government land had been occupied by Bahria Town.

Malik Riaz Hussain, the chairman of Bahria Town, in his testimony before the inquiry judge, Mazhar Hussain Minhas, said he did not pay Rs2.8 million to Raja Arshad in a Rs100 million deal because the seller did not provide possession of land in question. Mr Malik’s statement, as mentioned in the inquiry report, largely pertains to his version regarding a plot of land owned by Eden Housing Society. The inquiry report did not contain any other statement of Mr Malik regarding some serious allegations of land acquisition levelled by a few others who also appeared before the inquiry.