Owners of residential plots in I-11 Islamabad will have to wait a bit longer before they can take the possession of their property as a few people claiming the ownership of the land stopped Capital Development Authority (CDA) from leveling the land. When the CDA’s enforcement team reached there along with police officials, people from the surrounding villages gathered at the site, demanding that the original land owners be paid “compensation” before the CDA start any development work there. The enforcement team held negotiations with the affected people and asked them to come to the CDA office along with documents to resolve the issue. Bear in mind that the sector has not been developed for last three decades.
Initially in the 1980s, refugees from Afghanistan settled in the area and they stopped the CDA from developing the sector for two decades. Two of the former CDA chairmen, Tariq Mehmood Khan and Imtiaz Inayat Elahi, had announced different deals for the affected people but the civic agency failed to implement either of them. According to the locals, CDA was trying to take possession of over 4000 kanals without paying compensation. They further said that the different compensation packages were announced for the affected people where Rs350-600 per kanal was fixed as compensation. A large number of people refused to accept this “compensation” as the amount has no value so a new plan should be announced. In a few sectors, land owners were given plots as compensation but in I-11, this has been ignored.
Another resident disclosed that they have already submitted their cases to the CDA but the civic authority was not willing to resolve the issue through negotiations. The buyers of plots, on the other hand, are waiting for the development of the sector. However, CDA is willing to start development work in any case.
