Pakistan

Daily Times
Tuesday, January 31, 2006
Public Welfare Project in Limbo: CDA razes day-care centre
By Irfan Ghauri
ISLAMABAD:

The Capital Development Authority’s (CDA) anti-encroachment wing has demolished an under-construction “children day-care centre” without serving legal notice to the project developer, Daily Times has learnt.

The CDA leased out 600 square yards of land at Argentina Park in Sector G-6 on November 22, 2004, to an overseas Pakistani educational network, the Magic Roundabout Nurseries Pakistan Pvt (Limited). The land was leased out to the network to set up a child day-care centre. The company was selected for the project out of over 12 aspirants because of its past experience in successfully running a chain of child day-care centres in the UK.

According to the design presented to the CDA, the first phase of the project entailed renovation of the long-neglected Argentina Park, at a cost of Rs 4 million. The second phase entailed development of the day-care centre, which included an activity unit, indoor games’ facilities, at a cost of Rs 16 million.

The CDA demolished the half finished building after the company finished renovations on Argentina Park in March, 2005. According to the agreement, the CDA charged the company Rs 28,638 per month as land rent, which was to increase 10 percent annually during the first seven years of the project. The chief landscape architect of the CDA approved the master plan of the day-care centre on June 17, 2005 and the CDA approved its detailed drawings on August 31, 2005, according to CDA records.

The network was to bear all charges of running the park and the centre including utility bills, security fees and maintenance charges. Sources said that shortly after the construction of the centre started, the CDA asked the network to stop the work through a “verbal intimation”, without serving any written notice. Then the CDA anti-encroachment squad demolished the building without serving any legal notice to the network, which is a violation of state laws and the agreement reached between the network and the CDA.

The agreement mentioned that “In case of violation of any terms of the said agreement by MRN, the agreement shall be liable to cancellation provided no such action is taken unless the company is informed of the violations and given at least 15 days to show the cause of the action”.

Clause 28 of the agreement says: “In case of disagreement between the parties, the disagreement shall be referred for arbitration and the arbitrator shall be nominated by the parties”.

None of these conditions were fulfilled when the project was demolished, sources said. The CDA anti-encroachment director told Daily Times that the demolition was carried out on the request of the CDA parks director. He said the CDA had first asked the project developer to stop the construction because the construction materials being used were reportedly not according to the agreement and after that the building was demolished. Asked if any legal notice was served before the demolition, he said: “The parks director must have fulfilled all the legal requirements and they must have got the approval of authority concerned to demolish the building.”

He said that according to the CDA procedures, in order to demolish a building, the department concerned has to put up a written request to the anti-encroachment department but in this case the operation was carried out on a verbal request. “You better consult the parks director on the issue as the project was under his jurisdiction,” he said.