Due to negligence on part of the Capital Development Authority (CDA), encroachments and land grabbing have been on the rise in the federal capital.
Encroachments have manifested themselves in many different forms across the city. In markets across town, it has become common practice among shopkeepers to place their wares on roads, inconveniencing visitors and vehicles. Illegal structures are raised on the land meant for parks and playing facilities meant for children are routinely abused, especially by seminary students, such as the play area in F-6/1.
In Blue Area, the commercial heartland of the capital, cars are seen parked on pavements while entire parking lots are illegally occupied by car dealers.
Although the CDA’s Directorate of Enforcement has been trying hard to clear the capital city of the menace of encroachment, it has achieved little success. Usually, CDA staffers are able to, at best, displace encroachers such as fruit vendors and stallholders who return after a while.
However, a CDA senior official confided to Pakistan Today that low ranking staff at CDA, responsible for ending encroachments, often accepts bribes from traders in exchange for not taking action against them. He added that in order to have something to show for their jobs, the low rank staffers usually take action against poor vendors.
With respect to land-grabbing, the official commented that the condition was worst in residential sectors where most of the land grabbers and encroachers are influential people with strong political backing. In this regard, the official cited the example of the lengthy struggle which recently took place when CDA attempted wrest public land back from PPP’s Senator Nayyar Bokhari.
The official also highlighted another recent incident, when the CDA confronted with a PML-N MNA, Anjum Akeel, who was in illegal possession of land worth six billion rupees belonging to the National Police Foundation (NPF).
