The Defence Housing Authority (DHA) which makes tall claims about upholding building control laws and clamping down on violations in its area, does not hesitate breaking its own rules when it comes to the authority’s interests. This is evident in the case of the newly opened Floating Ship restaurant which has been allowed a parking space by blocking a service road of the Beach Avenue.

When contacted by The News, Brigadier Iftikhar Haider, Director, Special Projects, said that no law has been broken with the Floating Ship restaurant blocking off the service lane on Main Seaview Road (Beach Avenue) to make a parking area for the restaurant.

The controversial restaurant, in which DHA also has a stake, has been making the news for all the wrong reasons. In the past, there have been public protests over the manner in which the DHA has allowed the restaurant to be built on a public beach.

The “Sahil Bachao Tehreek” claimed that by allowing the restaurant to be built on a portion of the beach, the passage of beach visitors was being cut off at high tide by the restaurant that juts out onto the public beach area.

With the opening of the restaurant, the DHA has allowed a service lane of the Beach Avenue to be converted into a parking area for the restaurant. Brigadier Haider claims that the permission to build a parking area by closing off a service lane is allowed in the Master Plan approved by the DHA’s higher-ups in 2007.

By all accounts, however, this does not go with the Master Plan philosophy as encroachment of service lanes is not allowed under any town planning proposal. Brigadier Haider did not cite the exact resolution under which the permission was given to allow a service lane to be converted into a parking lot.

Under DHA bylaws (2007), there is no provision under which any service lane or utility road can be converted to use by a specific enterprise, let alone a commercial venture like a restaurant.

In the case of the Village Restaurant, which is situated at one end of Beach Avenue, there has been no encroachment of any service lane as there is none in front of the restaurant.

The majority stake owner in the Floating Ship project, Raees Ahmad, told The News that there was “no irregularity” in the allocation of parking space to the Floating Ship restaurant.

It may be noted that there has been no other case where a restaurant in the DHA has been allowed dedicated parking space. While the DHA says it is not an encroachment, there is no provision to block off a service road and turn it into a parking area.

When asked, the DHA has no plausible explanation to give. The Cantonment Board Clifton (CBC) that controls the charged parking on the entire lane starting from McDonalds to the Village restaurant says that the board does not have the record of the floating ship restaurant since it is DHA’s property.

The DHA’s Building Control department, where all the building plans go for approval, also says that this building does not come under the building control department.

When contacted, the DHA spokesman said he had to “look into details” to explain why this irregularity was allowed. The project has been claimed to be the world’s first stationary cruise ship being built on the Seaview and DHA has referred it as the “ninth wonder of the world.”

If there is any wonder, says an observer, it is that building by-laws have been amended to accomodate a business partner of the DHA. It may be recalled that this newspaper pointed out earlier this year how the Vigilance Department had overlooked the apportionment of a service lane by a Dubai-based bank on Khayban-e-Shahbaz in Phase 6.

At the time, the then DHA Administrator, Brigader Kamran Aziz Kazi, has said that the report was false. However, facts on the ground proved otherwise and the DHA finally had to take notice against the bank. In that incident too, the DHA Vigilance Department had turned a blind eye to the malpractice and only acted after the matter was highlighted.

Source: The News

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1 Comment

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  By pavocavalry, 28 November, 2008 @ 5:53 pm

  not only DHA , no other army run commercial organisation has anything crdible .i will give few examples:–
  1-NLC was given Pindi Kharian Roads one two lane portion without bidding on rates of their own choosing.the other two lanes were given to J & P by bidding.J & P completed the work in time and NLC did it more than 2 years late.
  2-FWO was fourth highest bidder in makran coastal highway but got the project illegally when musharraf came in power while the actual company which was lowest and was awarded was SK & B initially.Once FWO got this highway it again sub contracted it to civilian conractor companies.
  3-FWO did not have the capability to make a single bridge in the KKH (Silk Road) .All bridges were made by chinese in between Thakot and Khunjerab.
  4-Shahbaz Sharif gave city roads to FWO in Faisalabad and Lahore.FWO sub contracted these to civilian comapnies at rates 20 % to 30 % lower.Thus government contracts were awarded without bidding to FWO and at 20 to 30 % loss.
  5-Now Shahbaz Sharif has awarded Pindi Elevated Expresway to FWO without bidding and at 30 % higher rates tha any civilian comoany and FWO will make profit by sub contracting to civilian contractors.Above all FWO does not have the expertise to do such a specialised project.

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