ISLAMABAD: The Capital Development Authority (CDA) has requested the Auditor General of Pakistan (AGP) to conduct a forensic audit of eligibility certificates (ECs) issued from 1960 to 1986.
As per the details, the ECs were issued by CDA to people for allotment of land in colony districts of Punjab for their settlement instead of their land acquired in Islamabad.
CDA suspects that many ECs holders later surrendered their ECs to get agro farms in Islamabad, which constitutes double benefits.
The Member Estate of the CDA wrote a letter to the AGP office requesting the audit.
According to the letter, the authority launched the Rehabilitation Scheme in 1965 for the settlement of land acquisition for people owning cultivated agricultural land only.
The sources added that from 1961 until 1987, CDA issued 16137 ECs in 153 of 232 acquired mouzas to affected citizens in eight Punjab colony districts and two colony districts of Sindh province.
Many EC awardees surrendered the certificates and CDA canceled the ECs under clause 7(2) of Islamabad Displaced Persons Rehabilitation Policy 1996, allotting affected people residential plots/agro farms in Islamabad.
CDA suspects there were maladministration and malfeasance cases where ECs were surrendered and rehabilitation benefits in the form of agro farms/residential plots were allotted.
The ECs, which were surrendered in favor of CDA, were deemed to have been utilized and bogus/fabricated signatures of officials/officers of the Punjab government.
CDA has also requested a forensic audit of all the ECs issued by the AGP to investigate these concerns.
The letter also highlights the cumbersome process of verifying surrendered ECs, where the colony districts must accurately record the non-allotment of agricultural land.
The letter says that after the Supreme Court’s direction in 2018, some of the colony districts’ deputy commissioners demanded a forensic audit report from the AGP office.
Moreover, CDA wants the forensic audit to be conducted in light of the Supreme Court of Pakistan’s directions in a civil appeal on 19 of 2014.
In addition to issuing ECs for land in colony districts, the CDA also dealt with the land-affected people through compensation by allotment of plots against the acquired land and built-up property.
The total number of awards announced by CDA so far against the acquired land is 527 while 158 awards have been notified for built-up properties.
