CDA exposed: Dozens of fraudulent land transfers uncovered in Islamabad

ISLAMABAD: A massive scandal has been uncovered in Islamabad, involving dozens of fraudulent land transfers under the Capital Development Authority (CDA).

A parliamentary committee has recently choosen to disclose such a case in which a file concerning a house in Sector I-10/4 went missing, leading to an inconvenience for the actual owner.

According to reports, CDA officials colluded with the property dealers to manipulate files such that the allotments were covered up. Many plots were allocated to land affectees by using bogus documents and later actually sold to unsuspecting buyers, these transactions being transferred multiple times before the commencement of inquiries, after which the original files disappeared.

The CDA has acknowledged the identification of 87 such cases, cancelling the permissions granted after an inquiry, of which 68 were first-time transfers with 31 being referred for further inquiry.

According to the authority, a “mafia” worked in connivance with corrupt insiders to exploit citizens, leading to the dismissal of four employees only in the past months.

However, Senator Abdul Shakoor Khan criticized CDA for its failure of detection of irregularities during the previous transfers, thereby bringing the innocent buyers into dilemma.

In wake of this, CDA promised action against the culprits and to buffer the further fraudulent activities, but the Senate committee found the actions of CDA not sufficient for accountability and subsequent compensation for the persons affected.

The CDA has reiterated that this is not the first time it is getting caught in a scandal; similar cases of fake files and illegal allotments have emerged earlier with one such case getting the CDA director land repatriated in 2012 on allegations of his involvement in a fake files scam.

The authority has also recovered files and stated that investigations involving missing property files and bogus land transfers were started in different sectors of Islamabad.