ISLAMABAD High Court (IHC) Chief Justice Athar Minallah has remarked that breaking the law is the most sensitive issue while the CDA law is for the weak only and becomes silent before the powerful. He gave these remarks during a hearing in the Naval Farms and Navy Sailing Club construction, adding that all institutions are involved in real estate business.
Pakistan is facing a serious housing shortage and it is because of this that the incumbent Government has launched the mega housing project to provide shelter to citizens. Almost similar plans including establishment of new cities were announced by different governments in the past but none of them could take off and the severity of the problem remains almost the same. The issue has been complicated by the inability of civic institutions like Capital Development Authority (CDA), which failed to open new sectors despite tall claims made repeatedly and people were deceived in the name of otherwise prestigious projects like New Islamabad City. Under these circumstances, there seems to be nothing wrong if institutions run housing societies fulfilling housing needs of the citizens provided they do the business in a legal and fair manner. There are, indeed, some societies that are mere money-minting institutions as they are not delivering as per their claims and members are often deprived of their investment and savings. All this is happening because of lack of enforcement of by-laws of the civic institutions and this we have witnessed repeatedly in the case of CDA and RDA in the twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi. There are numerous issues relating to land acquisition, land utilization, provision of basic infrastructure, quality of services, after sale service, allotment of plots and construction of houses and these can be taken care of through proper and effective vigilance by civic agencies. Genuine housing societies need to be encouraged while others involved in illegal and unethical practices must be taken to task irrespective of the institution they represent.
