ISLAMABAD: The sealing decision for the Capital Development Authority’s (CDA) Safa Gold Mall has been overturned by the Islamabad High Court (IHC).
According to IHC Justice Saman Rafat Imtiaz, the CDA first gave the owner permission to build on the additional space, but then acknowledged that the license had been given incorrectly.
The private businessman could not be punished for the CDA’s employees’ error, the judge said.
In 2010, CDA sold property No. 5 at Jinnah Super Market, the location of its former health department, at auction. However, the civic agency turned the medical facility into a commercial property in a highly dubious act.
When CDA sealed the building in 2022, they specified that the building’s floor-area ratio would be 1:5 with 100 percent coverage and that it would have ground-plus-four stories, which would limit the structure’s height.
Later on, the plot owner built three more unapproved stories in collusion with CDA officials.
Although he received approval from the CDA for three more stories, the CDA revoked that approval after the issue was brought to light.
Following an investigation by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), the mall owner and a number of CDA officials were facing jail time.
