Following the directions passed by the two-member bench of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, headed by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, the Capital Development Authority on Monday took over the physical possession of the ‘Northern Strip’ of Sector E-11. This ‘Northern Strip’ of Sector E-11, spread over an area of 54 acres of land, was being developed as a ‘joint venture’ by the Multi Professional Co-operative Housing Society (MPCHS) and the CDA. A formal agreement for this joint venture between the MPCHS and the CDA was approved by the CDA Board and signed on December 2, 2008 under which the CDA had the rights over 57 per cent of the project while the MPCHS had 43 per cent rights on the total area.
According to the development plan the 54-acre area lying in the ‘Northern Strip’ of Sector E-11, 47.58 kanal of land was reserved for residential plots, 112.05 kanal of land was reserved for high-rise and medium-rise residential blocks (flats/apartments), 29.86 kanal area was reserved for commercial plots, 15.8 acres of land was under the road network in the project, 70.51 kanal area was reserved as ‘institutional area’ while 27.28 kanal area was reserved for ‘educational/health’ purposes. A total of 2.8 acres of land was left as ‘green area’ in the project. However, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, took suo-moto notice, as the project became controversial as both CDA and the MPCHS came under criticism from the public and the media, under case no.13 of 2009. On April 16 the two-member bench, comprising the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry and Justice Ghulam Rabbani, decided the case, directing the CDA to take over the possession of the project and complete it in accordance with the provisions of the (CDA) Ordinance.
The directions passed by the Supreme Court said:
“Clause (iv) of regulation 4(1)A of the Regulation is declared to be inconsistent with sections 12 and 13 read with section 2(1) and (J) and consequently the JVA (Joint Venture Agreement) entered with MPCHS is rendered inoperative and ineffective qua CDA. “The CDA Board is directed to take over the project and complete the same in accordance with the provisions of the Ordinance.
“The Chairman CDA shall ensure implementation of the above direction and submit compliance report within a period of one month from the date of this judgment, and. “MPCHS will, however, be at liberty to pursue the remedy for recovery of any amount spent on the project in accordance with law.” On Monday, CDA Chairman Imtiaz Inayat Elahi and the CDA Board Members held a special meeting in the CDA Headquarters to formulate strategy for taking over the Northern Strip of E-11 in the light of Supreme Court decision.
The spokesman for the Authority said that the Director-General (Planning), Ghulam Sarwar Sandhu, informed the meeting that the possession of the project has already been taken over by the Enforcement staff of CDA. He said that the CDA chairman has issued directions for establishing security picket and check posts to ensure the safety of already developed infrastructure and streetlights etc in this ‘Joint Venture Northern Strip’. “It was also decided to dispose off commercial and residential plots through open auction in transparent manner. It is expected that the CDA will earn handsome amount through sale of these plots in the near future,” the CDA spokesman said.
He said that the chairman has also directed that the relevant officers should ensure the implementation of the Supreme Court decision in letter and spirit. It was also decided that all joint venture projects under consideration in the Authority be reviewed in the light of the Supreme Court judgment given on Northern Strip, E-11.
