Capital Deve­lopment Authority halts land retrieval drive amid PM’s skyscraper relief

ISLAMABAD: The Capital Deve­lopment Authority (CDA) has decided to stop operations against informal settlements to retrieve state land in Islamabad after the hue and cry over the prime minister’s decision to halt action against the ‘One Constitution’ skyscraper.

After a court order, the CDA and police had arrived outside the twin towers on Constitution Avenue to vacate the building, but the operation was stopped due to the intervention of PM Shehbaz Sharif, who formed a committee to resolve the matter after listening to the residents.

The decision, however, caused an uproar on social media, with the CDA and the interior ministry attracting flak for their operations in the capital to retrieve state land in working-class neighbourhoods of Bari Imam and Saidpur.

Against this backdrop, Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi told an interior ministry officer there was no justification for carrying out operations to retrieve state land until the One Constitution issue was settled, sources in the CDA told Dawn. They said the ministry directed the civic body on Friday night to stop all types of operations in Islamabad.

Officials say civic body stopped all operations till resolution of One Constitution issue

“If we cannot move against the affluent class living in the One Constitution building, there is no justification for taking action against informal settlements built on acquired land; all types of operations have been stopped in Islamabad until the One Constitution building is vacated,” said a CDA officer on condition of anonymity. Another official also confirmed this development.

Sources said the CDA was already facing criticism over its action against informal settlements, and its failure to vacate the One Constitution building compounded this problem. They claimed some apartments, owned by bigwigs, did not even have their purchase records available, or if the records were available, they were incomplete. “If we cannot move against the bigwigs, we have no justification to go after those who had built small houses on CDA’s acquired land,” said a CDA official.

Earlier, the PM restrained the Islamabad administration and CDA from taking any action until his final decision in the matter. He also formed a committee to submit a report to him within a week after listening to affected individuals.

Published in Dawn, May 2nd, 2026