ISLAMABAD: The rift between two government functionaries over the possession of precious plot has been intensified as both the organisations are at loggerheads over the open space utilised by IESCO in different sectors of the capital, and the huge electricity bills still pending with CDA.
Metropolitan Corporation Islamabad (MCI) On June 8, has given seven days to Islamabad Electric Supply Company (IESCO) to pay an outstanding amount of 2.45 billion rupees to avoid coercive legal action. “Islamabad Electric Supply Company has to pay this amount for the use of open spaces within Municipal Limits of Islamabad to Metropolitan Corporation Islamabad,” reads the letter.
“IESCO has been given seven days to comply with the notice. Legal action including coercive measures will be taken against IESCO in the case of non-compliance. The amount is pending for the period from July 2000 till June 2017. The letter in this regard had already been sent to IESCO but no response was received,” said a press release of CDA.
DMA Director Ali Sufyan, while talking to Pakistan Today said that the authority has written a letter to IESCO because, on record, there was no notice issued to IESCO in the past 17 years. “IESCO has dues of more than 2 billion rupees [approximately 350million per year] and they are not paying them…they will have to pay the dues or come to the table of negotiations [if they believe that the amount is exaggerated]”, he said.
A high official of IESCO on the condition of anonymity told this scribe, “CDA does not pay its electric dues often and when we send the bill to CDA, they send us notice as reciprocal action. The building was constructed more than 30 years ago. This time CDA would not take any action like the past. It is the old dispute based on mutual bargaining”, he added.
Spokesman of IESCO Basit Zaman said that CDA had issued many notices in the past also, but this is not a private office that it may seal or demolish. He said that they are trying to resolve the issue amicably. He said that there are several buildings in Islamabad which were constructed in violation of bye-laws of CDA, but it keeps silent there.
