- Senators also discuss alarming situation of non-availability of water in different areas of Islamabad
- Federal capital only has water reserves for 10 or 15 more days if it did not rain in next few days
ISLAMABAD: Senate’s Standing Committee on Capital Administration and Development (CADD) here on Friday sought complete details of the lease agreement with the Monal Restaurant prior to its next meeting and asked for any and all information of previous litigation in this regard.
In a meeting, the committee also sought the amount of tax collected, number and details of bidders, amount of rent and law regarding constructing a restaurant and continuously expanding it in the area that was declared national park.
The meeting was held under the chairmanship of Senator Dr Ashok Kumar at the Parliament House and was attended among others by senators Nighat Mirza, Saadia Abbasi, Kalsoom Parveen, CADD Secretary, CDA finance, planning and engineering members among others.
The committee was given briefing by the director of the Metropolitan Corporation Islamabad that the process for auction of the building in Pir Sohawa was initiated in 2005 and out of eight bidders, the land and building was given on a lease for 15 years to the company with the highest bid and with technical soundness in 2006 with the agreement to end in 2021.
However, the committee chairman observed that in order to believe that this bidder came with the best price, the committee needs to see details of all bids submitted at that time. The committee members were surprised to know that the company gives a monthly rent of 260,000 rupees and sought details of the lease agreement.
The committee was told by the CDA finance member that after an investigation of FIA and a case in the high court on the matter, it was taken up by PAC last year which had directed that after completion of the agreement in 2021, it is not to be renewed to the same party again but the process should be initiated again from the start.
The committee will take up the matter again in the next meeting. The committee also discussed the alarming situation of non-availability of water in different areas of Islamabad and was shocked to know that the capital only has water reserves for 10 or 15 more days if it did not rain in the next few days.
The matter of construction of high rise flats on an area designated for park in the residential society by the Pakistan Housing Authority near Kurri Road was also discussed. CDA planning member told the meeting that on receiving complaints about the construction, CDA had rejected PHA’s request for NOC against their layout plan and had served them notices that their construction was illegal.
