Private housing societies have become long and frustrating tales of false advertising and broken promises as housing societies’ managements often appear unable and unwilling to deliver on their promises.
Private housing societies make tall claims about provision of state of the art facilities in a housing society in order to persuade people to invest in the scheme. Majority of private housing societies allure investors with false promises, phony facts and figures, and once the sale has been made, they leave their residents high and dry.
The residents find nothing but a group of people in the management who keep minting more money but leave the residents helpless.
Shakeel Ahmed, a resident of Jinnah Gardens being run by Federal Employees Cooperative Housing Society (FECHS), pointed out that electric wires covered with ordinary solution tape were lying in several streets of the society. He said that a number of complaints had been lodged with the office-bearers in this regard, but in vain.
“There is also a shortage of water in the society and lack of gas at certain places,” said Azam, another resident of the society.
When contacted FECHS Secretary Atta-ur-Rehman told the news agency that the management was well aware of the problems being faced by the residents and was trying its best to resolve them.
He said the society was in consultation with WAPDA and the issue of uncovered wires would be resolved within two months.
However he refused to admit that people were facing water shortage or that gas was not being provided to a large number of residents.
Residents are unsatisfied and frustrated in a number of housing societies located in Zone IV and V because of the way the administrations are running the affairs of the societies without any vision or planning.
“The condition of roads here is very rough as they have not been repaired since the society was established,” said Asif Mumtaz, a resident of Soan Gardens.
He said there was no clean drinking water in the locality and parks were also in a dilapidated condition.
Talking to the news agency, Soan Gardens Housing Society Secretary Yasir Arafat Mehdi admitted that there were a lot of issues that needed to be fixed in the area.
He said his administration had just taken reigns of the society with an aim to provide better living facilities to the residents.
Mehdi said a number of steps were being taken for benefiting the residents and society including installation of LED lights and close circuit cameras, beautification and maintenance of parks and provision of clean drinking water.
The housing society management has to get the map approved and attain an NOC from CDA fulfilling all the requirements of the civic body before they can construct a housing society. However, once the society has been built, all the rules and regulations are thrown out and the approved layout plan is often violated.
Mohsin, a resident of CBR ECHS, told the news agency that the administration of the society did not pay attention to providing basic facilities to the residents, as there was only one mosque and park available for the whole community which were inadequate.
Central Board of Revenue Employees Cooperative Housing Society (CBR ECHS) was also found among some of the societies involved in violation of approved layout plans.
According to official documents the news agency claims to have obtained, the CBR ECHS administration had, in sheer violation of the approved layout plan of the society, converted almost 160 kanal land out of a total of 189.48 kanals earmarked for open spaces/parks, public building areas and graveyard, into residential and commercial plots earning billions of rupees.
The news agency claimed that a number of attempts were made to contact CBR ECHS President Altaf Butt, but he was not available for comment on the matter.
When contacted, CDA spokesman told the news agency that CDA first issues show cause notice to a housing society upon violation of approved layout plan, and if the management concerned fails to answer to the show cause notice satisfying the authority then legal action is taken against the housing society.
He said that CDA had already issued a number of notices to the societies violating the approved layout plan.
According to a press release issued by the CDA, the civic body is also taking action against housing societies which either have not obtained NOC and approval from CDA or are falsely being marketed as located in Islamabad.
The press release said that notices had been served to the housing societies, after which action in accordance with prevailing laws would be initiated.
