Repair of Interior Minister’s Enclave: CDA replaces previously issued tender

ISLAMABAD: The Capital Development Authority (CDA) replaced a previously issued tender for repair and maintenance of House 36, Minister Enclave (residence of Syed Mohsin Naqvi, Minister for Interior), following significant public criticism, and issued a new corrigendum to expand the scope of repair for eight houses on Monday.

A tender of Rs 47 million for repair at Syed Mohsin Naqvi’s official residence (House 36, Minister Enclave), initially published on August 2, has been withdrawn. The CDA issued a fresh corrigendum on August 4, 2025, expanding the scope to cover repair and maintenance for eight houses in total.

The corrigendum was released to national dailies but not uploaded on the website of CDA. The corrigendum does not provide details of the eight houses. On March 18, 2024, House 36 was allotted to Syed Mohsin Naqvi, previously occupied by former spokesperson for Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Fahad Hussain.

The renovation project is not part of the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP); instead, it’s being funded by the CDA. On July 30, 2025, CDA approved a budget outlay of Rs 92.215 billion for fiscal year 2025–26, reflecting a renewed focus on fiscal discipline, urban infrastructure, digital governance, and tourism development.

Sources in CDA told this scribe that CDA can spend around Rs 700,000 on a single house in the minister’s enclave per annum depending on the availability of funds. Since the funds required for the renovation were much higher than the assigned limit, the CDA’s usual practice is to prepare a PC-I - a time consuming procedure subject to approval from the competent authorities.

In 2024, amendments were made to the CDA Ordinance 1960 which gave considerable financial powers over CDA finances to the ministry including development related affairs of the capital city. These amendments pertain to powers of borrowing, execution of schemes and their finances, creation of funds, besides budget approval, audit, accounts and making rules. Before 2024, all such powers were vested with the federal government.

The size of the current federal cabinet has swelled to 51, including 30 federal ministers, nine state ministers, four advisers, and eight SAPMs.

In October 2018, when the powers were vested with the federal cabinet, a question was raised as to what was the source of funds for the renovation of official residence of the then state minister for interior, Shehryar Afridi.

Shehryar Afridi was assigned his portfolio on Aug 31, 2018. At that time funding was sought from PWD, district administration and CDA. He was allotted house no.3 in the Ministers’ Enclave by the PWD which was not in good condition.

On Monday, a CDA spokesman reportedly said that this was a routine maintenance tender for eight houses. A typo in the advertisement mistakenly mentioned one house. The error was corrected immediately, and a revised notice was published the next day, he added.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2025