Apparently to drag its feet from paying compensation to the affectees of Sectors H/16 and I/17, the Capital Development Authority (CDA) on Wednesday once again submitted the same options before Islamabad High Court (IHC) to resolve the compensation issue which have already been rejected by the same court.
Earlier on Friday, the IHC had warned the civic body to evolve a strategy to compensate the affected land owners in four days or be ready to face contempt of court proceedings.
However, on Wednesday when a single-member bench of the IHC comprising Justice Noorul Haq Qureshi resumed hearing of the case filed by land owners, legal advisor for the CDA Ramzan Chaudhry placed the same rejected options before the court.
Counsel for the affected villagers, Raja Inam Ameen Minhas informed the court that the said options had already been rejected by the court and the CDA was defying court directions in paying compensation to the affected land owners. Placing the already rejected proposals before the court was a contempt of court, he pleaded.
The court was also informed that the civic body had paid compensation to some influential people but was reluctant to pay compensation to the poor villagers of Sectors H/16 and I/17.
During September last year, the CDA had placed five options before the affected villagers of Sectors H-16 and I-17 in order to solve the matter relating to the payment of compensation for their land which were later rejected by the court.
In its options, the CDA offered the affected villagers “allotment of plots in the same sectors on the basis of land sharing formula” with a condition of handing over the possession of land.
In another option, the CDA urged the villagers to wait till the government released the required funds as the authority demanded Rs 15 billion from the federal government to pay them compensation. “As soon as the funds are approved and received from the federal government, the CDA will disburse the same among all the affected villagers,” the CDA said in its reply.
According to the third option, the authority offered Rs 100 million per quarter installment to the affected villagers. The fourth option is based on the possibilities of seeking joint venture for development of these sectors.
“In case the affected people do not agree to the above options, CDA would de-notify the acquired land as the 1civic body is in a process of amending the CDA Ordinance 1960 to pave the way for carrying out the de-acquisition process”, the fifth option said. Advocate Inam also submitted that the court in one of its order on the same issue on July 28, had given the CDA “last opportunity to settle the matter and make payments of compensation to the affected people within a period of two months.” He requested the court to start contempt of court proceedings against the CDA for defying the court orders.
