Citi Housing Society Faisalabad allotted four thousand plots at Samundri road project to file owners. The Faisalabad development authority (FDA) found out about that project to be illegal.
As per a news source the deputy director of town planning along with his team raided the site and stopped up further development work. In addition to that the deputy collector of Faisalabad was advised to stop any activity regarding the registration of property transfer immediately. Furthermore, senior officers of water and sanitation agency, Faisalabad Electric Supply Company and Sui gas department were asked not to allow any water, Sui gas and electricity connections to be given for Citi Housing Samundri project.
Faisalabad Development Authority has also made a public announcement for protecting their investment and refrain from buying any property in Citi Housing society. This is however one side of the picture but the other side of the picture is less gloomy. 95% of the plots offered by Citi Housing completed the allotment procedure in about less than a week.
People are literally spending hours outside in the heat only to make sure they don’t fail to get their hands of the plot next to the file they own. The incredible response that Citi Housing Faisalabad has received speaks much regarding the developers have gained in Faisalabad. The fast track expansion of the project by Cit Housing Society as well as this fact that they have delivered their earlier projects before time and according the committed standards, this is the only reason due to which people trust the brand name.
It is likely that the Samundri road project will be finished in one year. Mean while the time span for the installment plan by the developers is for three years. Ideally this will not harm developers plan to slow down the work. But as per the planning this doesn’t seem to be a part of it. For the time being Citi Housing is also looking forward to launch Citi Housing Phase one extension at Sargodha Road for providing accommodation to rest of the flight owners. The estimated number of file owners is two thousand.
On the other hand Faisalabad development authority has a project pending for last one decade and no update regarding its development status is given. FDA city located on Sargodha road has not yet got any electricity connections. Yet alone the plot offers possession to the particular owners. This project is expanded on a land of several hundred acres. Since the last ten years there is hardly any development compelling enough investors.
A case was registered against the owner of a private venture Citi Housing society Malik Aamir and Azhar Hussain a property dealer for illegally selling registration forms of plots and marketing the scheme. Case was registered because the Housing society was not approved by the FDA. This has lured the public into deals.
Plots were being offered even after the police registered the case against Malik Aamir. The district government registered the case for selling forms of Citi Housing Society without the approval of FDA. Police closed the file and tagged it as untraced. A second case was registered within the same police station by Ijaz Latif the deputy director of town planning. He said that the scheme was advertised at local cable channels.
Police has not yet arrested anyone because the district government and the Faisalabad development authority have not followed the case. Dr Nisar Jutt the MNA of PML-N said that he will bring the issue under the notice of Prime Minister Mr. Mian Muhammad Nawaz Shareef. This way the government and private officials will face the action.
Dr. Nisar is himself not aware when the Prime Minister will provide him a personal investigation. Meanwhile the plots are being traded in some of the shops at Iqbal stadium. About 5 to 8 property dealers have set their offices in the stadium, and some they are form Lahore. A plain form of cream color carries the name of the housing scheme it has no details of the plot allotted to the buyer.
The prices of the forms were fluctuating daily. Forms were sold for PKR 250,000 to PKR 265,000 as compared to the stated price of PKR 50,000. According to a lawyer Irfan Majeed, he failed to buy the form when he visited the office of a property dealer. They told him that all the forms have been sold but when he was leaving the office a man came to him and offered him the form for PKR 300,000.
Buyers are supposed to provide their details in the form. They pay the money in the form of cash and till the launch of the scheme they keep the form with themselves. Even the buyers cannot claim back their money in case if they have lost the registration form. Buyers have also been promised hundreds of thousands of rupees at the launch of scheme.
FDA has investigated the issue but they did not find the location of any site where the scheme was established. This reporter has seen a letter by the Faisalabad development authority that stating that the scheme has yet to be permitted. The officials of the scheme have submitted a letter for its approval. FDA replied with letter titled as preliminary planning permission for Citi Housing scheme Chak no 4-JB, 5-JB and 118-JB.
It was stated in the letter that the scheme comprising the area of 3300 kanal has been inspected under the supervision of Punjab Private Housing projects and land Sub Division rules. The scheme will be submitted for authorization according to the rules ibid to Faisalabad Development Authority, with a condition that the complete scheme area will be without any hindrance.
The permission for planning will be valid for time period of six months after the date of issuance. And it is not the permission to carry out any construction activity at the site or the marketing of plots the scheme. The plan of the layout will be confirmed by the urban plan land access.
The Director General Yaqoob Khan of FDA said that the Citi Housing Scheme has been approved but he had no document to prove what he said. But the Deputy Director of town planning said that the scheme has been approved for preliminary planning permission and the advertisement and sale of forms was illegal. (Saleem, 2015)
The average rate of land there is almost identical to what it was before ten years. After such a long time still no investors are willing to invest. Faisalabad development authority thinks that exercising the designated power through the local Government Of Punjab ordinance 2001 and also the Punjab development of cities act 1976 section number 5/12 is an act of public service.
No knows that who shall be contacted for finding out why the Faisalabad development authority approved FDA city is at a standstill for the past many years.
