By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: Islamabad’s One Constitution Avenue skyscraper was built on “irregularities and rigging”, a joint investigation has found, ministers announced on Wednesday, adding that the residential tower will be converted into a five-star hotel.
The report of the joint investigation team (JIT), presented to the federal cabinet and approved on the same day, accuses officials of the Capital Development Authority (CDA) of complicity in a scheme that cost the national exchequer and cheated apartment buyers, according to Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal.
Speaking at a press conference alongside Information Minister Attaullah Tarar and State Minister for Interior Tallal Chaudhry, Iqbal said the inquiry drew on input from the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), the Federal Investigation Agency, the Federal Board of Revenue, the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan, the Intelligence Bureau and Inter-Services Intelligence.
“The JIT has clearly identified that the project was created based on irregularity and rigging and that the bidding process was manipulated,” he said.
He said the report found that rules had been ignored to benefit the company awarded the lease, which had no rightful claim to it. The project was approved as a five-star hotel two decades ago but was later turned into apartments, he noted.
“In this whole matter, the CDA was found complicit, and similarly, the conditions of the bank guarantee were removed to provide benefits to the developers,” Iqbal said. “The work which was carried out was conducted in a very suspicious manner and the apartments were sold illegally.”
He said the JIT had identified Abdul Hafeez Sheikh as the “mastermind”, who was found to have been in connivance with CDA officials. Also named as colluding in the fraud were Kamran Lashari, who was CDA chairman at the time, Dr Faisal Awan, Azhar Ali Chaudhry, Brigadier (retired) Nasrullah and the late Rai Nawaz Kharal.
Iqbal said those named had “gained financially and defrauded the Pakistani people of their invested capital”. The JIT recommended that Sheikh and his company be blacklisted from future public projects and that proceedings be launched against him.
The report also called for the project to be reviewed and steered back to its original purpose as a hotel, and for it to be restarted and auctioned transparently. Security and other institutional clearances should be obtained so that future projects rest on a steady framework, Iqbal said, adding that fire safety and other protocols must be ensured.
The JIT further recommended renaming the building, he said, because the address it traded under was the same as that of the finance ministry. “They used this address for marketing purposes only,” he said.
On those who bought apartments, Iqbal said it had been decided that their principal investments would be refunded and payments adjusted against Kibor, the benchmark interbank rate, “so they do not suffer losses”. “There will be action taken against those found involved in fraud,” he said. “The government has a responsibility to protect those who were robbed or swindled.”
Among the structural reforms, he said, were an overhaul of the CDA and its ordinance, an independent master plan commission, digitisation of all records and a two-yearly rotation of officers between the state planning, enforcement and building control departments.
“People have held offices for 20 years and opened offices of fraud,” he said. “With this constant rotation, it will close the door on these corrupt projects.” NAB, he added, had been ordered to take action against everyone involved in the project and those who facilitated it.
Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi, who also addressed a press conference on Wednesday, said the government had regained possession of the building and would turn it into a five-star hotel within months.
“In official documents, we always had possession of this building, and after the cabinet’s approval, it is now legally in our possession,” he said. He regretted that the decision to retake the tower earlier this year had been portrayed as a “crime”.
“There is a severe shortage of hotels in Islamabad,” Naqvi said. “We will soon try to make an agreement with a large chain of hotels and convert this building into a five-star hotel.”
He praised the CDA chairman and the authority’s legal team for pursuing the case, but said the CDA itself was at fault. “NAB will tell who is responsible,” he said. Occupants would be paid what is rightfully owed, which he described as “binding for us after the report”.
Naqvi said a residents’ committee that had overseen the building’s affairs had been abolished, and a CDA member would now look after it. He called the planned hotel a “gift to the people of Islamabad”.
The tower’s lease was cancelled by the CDA after the company behind the project defaulted on payments, under a 2019 Supreme Court verdict that required the developer to pay Rs17.5 billion in instalments over eight years. That ruling had conditionally allowed the building to be regularised. The Islamabad High Court upheld the cancellation, leading to mass evictions of residents. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif ordered a halt to further action against residents and set up a high-level committee on 1 May. He later ordered a JIT led by a NAB officer, with Intelligence Bureau and ISI representation. The High Court subsequently restrained the CDA from dispossessing residents while appeals were heard.
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