NAB Transfers Rs66bn Public Utility Land to CDA

The National Accountability Bureau’s Islamabad and Rawalpindi office has completed the transfer of public utility and amenity land worth around Rs66 billion to the Capital Development Authority, marking a major development in long-pending cases involving private housing societies in the federal capital. The action was reported on April 30 and is being presented as part of a wider effort to reclaim land originally reserved for public welfare facilities.

According to official details, 5,484.76 kanal of amenity land in Gulberg Residencia and 999 kanal in Margalla View D-17 have been formally transferred to the CDA in the first phase. Authorities said the land had been set aside for parks, schools, hospitals and other community facilities but had remained stuck in administrative and legal complications for years.

The recovered and transferred land has been valued at approximately Rs66 billion. Officials placed nearly Rs41 billion under DC rate assessment, while public utility land carrying an estimated market value of about Rs25.43 billion was also included in the transfer process.

The operation was completed under the supervision of DG NAB Islamabad and Rawalpindi Waqar Ahmed Chauhan, with coordination among NAB, the CDA, the Islamabad Revenue Department and the administrations of the relevant housing societies. Officials said the move helped regularise several cases that had remained unresolved for decades, including the Civil Employees Housing Society matter, which had reportedly been pending for almost 31 years.

NAB said the land in question had been reserved for public-interest purposes but delays and weak enforcement created space for encroachments, misuse and illegal subdivision practices often described as “china cutting”. Such practices have long damaged public trust in private housing schemes and deprived residents of promised civic facilities.

The development is significant because Islamabad’s expanding housing market has repeatedly faced complaints over missing parks, delayed schools, absent health facilities and land-use violations. In many private societies, buyers pay premium prices for plots while community spaces shown in approved layouts later become disputed, encroached or commercially exploited.

The latest transfer also comes amid growing official scrutiny of Pakistan’s real estate sector. NAB and other authorities have increasingly focused on housing societies, undocumented property transactions and cases where public welfare land was either not handed over to civic bodies or remained vulnerable to illegal occupation.

For CDA, the transfer could strengthen its ability to protect and manage land reserved for public services in planned housing areas. However, the real test will be whether the authority can secure possession, prevent fresh encroachments and ensure the land is actually used for parks, schools, hospitals and other welfare facilities rather than being left idle.

For residents and investors, the action may bring some relief if it leads to better civic infrastructure and stronger oversight of housing societies. It also sends a warning to developers that land promised for public use cannot remain indefinitely outside regulatory control.

NAB has indicated that another 4,500 kanal of land from additional housing societies is expected to be transferred in the coming weeks, while mutation of more than 2,500 kanal is currently under process. If the follow-up phase is completed, the initiative could become one of the more consequential accountability actions involving urban land governance in Islamabad.