The much-trumpeted Capital Development Authority’s (CDA) anti-encroachment drive in the federal capital seems like an exercise in futility, as most of the demolished shops and kiosks can still be seen operating in the capital as reportedly, the owners are greasing the palms of the high-ups of the civic agency.
The authority started the drive against encroachments with tall claims that it would be taken to its logical end sans any favour or fear. However, the situation on the ground speaks otherwise, as a number of demolished kiosks have been allowed to operate again in various sectors of the metropolitan.
Owners of various khokas told Pakistan Today that most of the kiosks owned by the poor were demolished while those with links to influential people were still intact.
They complained that the officials of the authority razed most of the legal kiosks being run by licence-holders for decades in the city and snatched away the bread and butter from the poor people.
An owner of a demolished kiosk told this scribe that he reopened his khoka, which was badly damaged during the anti-encroachment drive by the civic agency, because he promised to pay an amount Rs 5,000 to Rs 6,000 per month to the CDA’s officials as kickbacks.
When asked why he paid the amount despite having a licence, the owner of the khoka said that the owners of both legal and illegal kiosks paid money ranging from Rs 4,000 to Rs 6,000 to the officials to run their kiosks and shops or else they would be deprived of their sole source of earning on various pretexts.
During the recently conducted anti-encroachment drive, the civic agency demolished more than 300 kiosks in two days in various sectors of the capital. However, when the hue and cry of the owners of the demolished kiosks and huts reached the corridors of power, the authority suddenly halted the anti-encroachment drive, as the Parliament constituted a special ten-member committee to iron out the issue once and for all. The special committee after holding five meetings eventually directed the CDA to restore all 485 licensed kiosks within three working days. However, the issue is yet to be resolved.
A senior CDA official requesting anonymity said that the civic body was going after poor people, since they did not enjoy the patronage of the high-ups. He said that the authority did not dare touch the affluent guilty of similar encroachments on CDA land.
Talking to Pakistan Today, the spokesperson for the civic agency Ramzan Sajid said that since the matter of demolishing of kiosks had been placed before the National Assembly which would decide the fate of these kiosks, he could not comment on the issue.
However, when asked about the alleged bribe being received by the officials of the civic agency, he said that the matter being probed by the authority to ascertain the fact.
Of the 1,339 kiosks in CDA’s municipal limits, only 539 are licenced. Of these, the owners of only 279 kiosks hold location-specific licences. Only a few kiosks were allotted after placing advertisements in the national press, while the remaining kiosks were allotted by the former CDA chairmen and members of environment and administration wings.
–Hamid Khan Wazir
