Violation of Modalities & Procedures framed under ICT (Zoning) Regulation 1992

CDA, SECP silent over unauthorised sale of plots in Zone-IV

ISLAMABAD: A housing scheme continues to sell plots in Zone -IV without any no objection certificate (NOC) but Capital Development Authority (CDA), Security Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) and other relevant departments are silent and have not taken any action against the management of the society.

Rules of the CDA, Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) and other relevant departments do not allow any developer to announce a residential sector without meeting the requirements.

According to sources, Bahria Enclave Islamabad is not supposed to advertise the scheme till they are issued the NOC by the CDA. According to the ‘Modalities & Procedures’ framed under ICT (Zoning) Regulation, 1992 for development of private housing schemes in Islamabad “(i) the sponsor (of the scheme) shall not advertise or publicize the proposed scheme in any manner except in accordance with these Modalities and Procedures. (ii) The sponsor shall submit (a) two copies of ‘Site Plan’ of the proposed scheme at a scale of 1:10,000 indicating its location with reference to important land marks and permanent ground features; (b) Registration documents of the sponsors including certified true copies of Articles and Memorandum of Association and Aims & Objectives of the Society as the case may be; and (c) Statement of verifiable financial resources through last audited balance sheet of the registered Company or certified accounts of cooperative Society.”

An officer of CDA requesting not to be named said the sponsor was also required to submit a non-refundable scrutiny fee (departmental charges) of Rs 10,000 per scheme in favor of the CDA. After submission of all these documents the proposal has to be scrutinized by a committee comprising CDA member (planning) as chairman, the director-general (planning) and any other officer/officers of the authority whom the committee may like to co-opt as ‘members’.

The committee is required to complete the scrutiny within 30 days after which it has to inform the sponsor whether the proposal is feasible or not. And in case it is not feasible the committee shall inform the sponsor of the objections and reconsider the proposal after settlement of the objections, he maintained.

Another director level officer said according to the ‘Modalities & Procedures’ for private housing schemes in Islamabad the sponsors were required to deposit the entire development cost of the scheme with the Authority. The amount of development cost shall be assessed by the Authority on the basis of prevailing cost of development. The amount shall be deposited within 45 days of the clearance of detailed layout plan of the scheme.

In case the sponsor does not feel inclined to deposit the development cost of the scheme, he has to mortgage 30 percent of the saleable area in the detailed layout plan with the Authority as a ‘Guarantee’ for completing development works/services. The mortgage deed shall be executed by the sponsor within 30 days after clearance of detailed layout plan of the scheme.

The sponsor is also required to transfer to the CDA the land reserved for open spaces/parks, graveyard and land under right-of-way of roads in the scheme free of charge within 45 days of the clearance of detailed layout plan of the scheme.

After completion of these formalities a public notice, shall be published in the press, at the expense of the sponsors, regarding the mortgage of plots under saleable area with the Authority (CDA) by the sponsors within five days after mortgage deed has been executed between CDA and the sponsors.

The NOC conveying the approval of the detailed layout plan of the scheme shall be conveyed to the sponsors after the registration of the mortgage deed and transfer deed in favour of the CDA, and meeting the objections, if any, received in response to the public notice published already.

The sponsors shall thereafter be allowed to advertise the scheme and the validity of the NOC shall automatically be deemed to have been withdrawn in case the sponsors do not complete at least 10 per cent of development works within one year from the date of issuance of the NOC, the ‘Modalities & Procedures’ for private housing schemes under ICT (Zoning) Regulation, 1992 states.

These rules also said that the sponsors shall advertise the scheme only through a scheduled bank to be nominated by the CDA for a restricted membership which will also be determined by the CDA and the complete record of which shall be maintained by the nominated bank and submitted to the CDA.

It is indeed perplexing that in light of all these laid down rules and regulations clearly mentioned and explained in the ‘Modalities & Procedures’ framed under ICT (Zoning) Regulation, 1992, nobody in the CDA nor in the SECP have taken notice of the on-going ‘war’ between the CDA and the private housing scheme for their housing projects in Zone-IV of the Islamabad.

The silence of both the organizations is criminal as the poor people could be deprived of their hard earned money in case anything goes wrong at a later stage, as it is common observation with a large number of housing schemes already operating within the ICT limits as well as in adjacent Rawalpindi areas in the province of the Punjab. The stakes in the whole game are as high as 30 billion rupees.