- NAB asked to look into matter
Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: The city of Karachi comes to mind whenever the word ‘china cutting’ is used. The practice has been curtailed in Karachi in recent years but the capital city, Islamabad has now emerged as the new ‘china cutting’ capital of the country.
The investigation conducted by Daily The Patriot has revealed that certain officials of the Capital Development Authority (CDA) are involved in the illegal act of ‘creating new plots’. Such plots are created next to plots that have already been auctioned at inflated prices due to their ‘corner’ location (it is a common fact that corner plots fetch a lot more price than regular plots, the difference in price of commercial corner plots compared to regular corner plots is exponential). However once the plots are auctioned influential CDA officials ‘create’ new plots that effectively render the status of the previous corner plot useless, earning a ‘handsome’ amount in the process. This alleged illegal practice is usually carried out to favor certain individuals who have close links with figures in the Authority.
In one such case that occurred in the G-10 Markaz of the capital, certain CDA officials ‘created’ a new commercial plot (plot number 25-C) right next to a commercial plot (plot 25-B) that was earlier auctioned as a corner plot. This act by the Authority effectively rendered the status of plot 25-B as non corner, however the plot when auctioned was purchased as a corner plot on premium price.
When the aggrieved party took the matter to the Apex Court, the Court ruled (the excerpt of the Apex Court ruling is being reproduced) that ‘However, we may observe that the auction held during pendency of this case before the learned Trial Court shall be subjected to the final outcome of the case’.
As things stand the Authority is trying to complete the auction that is against the orders of the Supreme Court. As already mentioned many ‘new corner plots’ are created with the alleged collusion between CDA officials and ‘buyers of influence’. The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in the past few months has arrested officials of the Karachi Development Authority (KDA) including a former additional director of KDA for their alleged involvement in land grabbing through China-cutting. Victims of the alleged CDA-sponsored China-cutting have asked NAB to take strict action against those responsible in this practice in Islamabad like the Bureau has taken in Karachi and thoroughly investigate the matter.