IHC stays allotment of plots to CDA officers

Justice Muhammad Anwar Kasi of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) Tuesday retrained the Capital Development Authority (CDA) from allotting plots in the developed sectors to its officers serving in grade-17 to 19 while issuing a stay order directing the civic body to maintain status quo till final adjudication.An IHC bench on April 29, 2011, had issued stay orders regarding allotment of 4,000 plots to CDA employees serving in grade 1 to 16. The same case is pending before the IHC.

In the petition against allotment of plots to grade 17 to 19 officials of the CDA, the petitioner, Ghulam Mehboob Khokhar, said that the CDA is going to further allot plots in the developed sectors of Islamabad to its officers who have only ten-year service. According to him, it is clearly violation of the Article 25 as well as of the Islamabad Land Disposal Regulation (ILDR) 2005 resulting in loss of billions of rupees to the public exchequer.

While citing the Ministry of Interior and the Capital Development Authority as respondents, the petitioner adopted before the court that as per Section 5 of the ILDR 2005, CDA employees have only 5% quota in residential plots in the under-developed sectors other than the developed sectors. In the present case, no new sector has been announced for development in which CDA employees could be offered plots.As per rules and regulations, all residential plots in the developed sectors shall be allotted through open auction, the petitioner further said.