The sub-committee on Cabinet Secretariat met here at the Parliament House under the chairpersonship of Senator Kalsoom Perveen on Monday. The issues relating to water, rules, regulation and laws of CDA about housing societies and others were discussed at the meeting.
Member Planning CDA Asad Mehboob Kayani told the committee that Islamabad and Rawalpindi were facing a serious problem of water scarcity. He said that due to lack of rains, there was no water in the dams and the underground water level was also low. "If there are no further rains, it may cause serious problems in future," he added.
Convener of the sub-committee Senator Kalsoom Perveen said the CDA should carry out its duties aptly and resolve the problem. She said that water was life but the people were being forced to drink contaminated water. She said there was huge wastage in Rawal Dam but the CDA was not taking any step in that regard. She said the Supreme Court had also raised the issue of water in a better way.
Senator Hidayat Ullah told the sub-committee that intelligence establishment had set up a housing society in the name of Gulberg. He said people who had paid price of plots were not being given possession of plots captured and were being charged extra dues.
Kalsoom Perveen said the government acquired thousands of acres of land from the people for creation of the federal capital. She said the CDA should take effective strategy for compensation of affected people. She said there was a need of separate rules of the CDA for people's personal land and rules for the land of the CDA.
About Sir Syed Memorial Society, Kalsoom Perveen said Sir Syed Memorial Hall was established to keep fresh the services of Sir Syed Ahmed Khan and research on his role and services on education for Muslims of the subcontinent of that time. But this place was misused in the name of Sir Syed and the building was given on rent. She directed the management to lodge an FIR against the accused and submit its report within three weeks.
The CDA member planning said that the Supreme Court had ordered to get Sir Syed Memorial Hall vacated in summer, which would be vacated till the date set without notice.
Registrar Cooperative Housing Society, Muhammad Ali said the former director of Sir Syed Society had resigned from the post of the executive board member, adding the civil and sessions courts also gave judgments against him. Kalsoom Perven also revealed that the housing society of the Interior Ministry had collected money from employees, deposited Rs 800 million in bank and its mark-up was going to their pockets. He said when the money was taken from the employees, the cost of land was Rs 400,000 per kanal and now land at the rate of Rs 4 million per canal was not available. On which the CDA officials said the NOC of the society had been canceled.
The committee chairperson said the CDA should submit a detailed report to the committee in that regard. The committee was informed that elections of seven housing societies, including Jammu Kashmir, Interior and Jinnah Gardens, would be held soon. The Registrar Islamabad said that 5,000 additional allotment letters had been released for Jinnah Gardens, while neither land was available in Jinnah Garden nor was there any layout plan.