ISLAMABAD – The monitoring and implementation committee of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Thursday directed the Capital Development Authority (CDA) to revisit terms and rent of its land leased out to nurseries. The committee, chaired by Yasmeen Rehman, was told each nursery owner had been allotted one acre on yearly rent of Rs 11,000 only. The committee expressed reservations over the value of the rent. Yasmeen said the rent was less than even Rs 1,000 per month for an acre of cultivable land.
The committee directed CDA Chairman Imtiaz Anayat Elahi to revisit the terms and rent for leased out land, saying that the existing rent was less than the market rates. “Commonly land is leased out for 33 years with an available extension for two more tenures on same terms,” the CDA officials said. The committee also reviewed the process and area of total leased-out and sold-out land by the CDA in the federal capital.
Elahi said 90 percent of development work in sector D-12 had been completed, but in sector F-12 various problems and difficulties persisted as the occupants were not ready to vacate the land at any cost. CDA officials told PAC’s special committee that possession of only 50,000 acres of 70,500 acres had been taken physically at the time of implementation of the “Master Plan” in early 60s, which was a mistake on the part of the then CDA administration, as later the authority had to face numerous problems in getting the land vacated. Elahi told the committee that the CDA had to get 12,000 acres of its land evacuated from illegal occupants.
