A demand for equal law
The Grand Hyatt on One Constitution Avenue — a story that dominates headlines currently. Vloggers dissect it. News channels feed it. Social circles devour it — narrative after narrative, crafted for a gossip-hungry, scandal-addicted public.
Strip away the spectacle. A human story remains untold.
This is the story of a system built to bleed its own projects. It lures investors. It extracts the foundation. Then it manufactures setbacks — objections, delays, bureaucratic strangulation — by design and by default. Golden geese not to be nurtured here, they are slaughtered on schedule.
A conversation with my cousin in Peshawar back in 2013 — She spoke of a building in Islamabad — flats on instalments. We decided to invest together since we are great friends and love our nostalgic chats about Murree and our parents and childhood. Destiny! We thought. I invested in a flat on floor 11. Coming from a family that reveres Hazrat Abdul Qadir Gilani, known as Ghaus-ul-Azam, Ghaus Pak — the number “[11]” held/holds a reference sacred in our families.
The final instalment of my flat paid to BNP in 2016 and ironically, that same year, CDA sealed the building. Being a fatalist and having faith in the plans the universe has for me, I immediately remembered the Margalla Towers, 2005. OCA building was not tragedy. This was classic Development Authority bureaucratic move. A sealed building over a collapsed one due to an earthquake and so many lives lost — I counted myself lucky.
In 2020, the building was de-sealed. Relief came without warning. It felt like restitution. I was among the paid-in-full- Parking spot purchased. Utility bills paid in advance category. I chose to support the developer — one who had delivered possession of property to ordinary investors like me in a premium building. A building that surpassed Festival Tower on King Street, downtown Toronto. It was extraordinary scenic location — a superior vision of living.
The euphoria did not last long as in 2023 CDA seized the building. The developer’s lease cancelled. I watched with no illusions. CDA could not operate that structure. Seven-star hospitality demands specialist facility management. KFM had performed while CDA could not. It would end in a disaster, I thought.
We were sub-lessees. Always! Our contracts with BNP stated it plainly. If the developer sank, we sank with him. We all entered with open eyes if one read what was evident in that bargain. My interest was singular: rent from property. Supplemental income to fund a rescue. Cats. Dogs. Staff wages. Their Food. Maintenance. Chaos followed with this CDA takeover.
The Residents Committee fumbled. Utility billing done under the new set-up, new power and no competence. A vacuum appeared. Some played owner, some rank with the authorities backing as CDA could not take full control. The developer was in court, April 30, 2026; the Islamabad High Court dismissed the developer’s writ petition. I thought a gift from the universe it seems on my birthday; but how?
Midnight — Frantic calls from my tenant. “Emergency,” he said. “Police. Everywhere; surrounding the building”. I called back and asked. “Murder? Terrorists? What has happened?” However, deep inside I knew this was the IHC verdict, executed with some plan, as no one in the right sense would allow this midnight takeover. There has to be a pre-plan I thought.
I recalled the FIA report of 2017. It had revealed that the developer did not act alone in getting any favour from CDA if he did. CDA colluded at every juncture. Top tier officials facilitated and now here was court decision that upheld CDA’s version, and the blame narrowed to one man — the developer.
What of CDA? What of the office holders, who signed, stamped enabled the Developer in all the years they say he was facilitated.
My concluding note on this story is: I am a sub-lessee of a flat in this narrative, but I expect equal application of law. The lease stands cancelled, which is fine. The developer sinks, which is again fine. However, we the sub lessees must sink with the developer as it would be a fair application of law. Ignorance of facts about the building does not make us innocent.
I agree with the observation of the court. We are sub lessees. We do not exist without the main leaseholder. Far more important than the above remains one solid concern for me. If the homes of the poor in Islamabad demolished for illegality, why is this building exempt? If the OCA building’s structure is illegal — why is there speculation and mediation to resolve the issue with CDA? Demolish it with the same licence with the same confidence and disregard for personal grief of owners the way Bari Imam and Saidpur operations were conducted. The way every other illegal structure is demolished.
I am aware I lose my investment in OCA if the building is demolished. However, I gain something far more valuable than money. I gain proof that I live in a system, that I live in a society, that I am a citizen of a country that is just and believes in equal treatment of its citizens and protection of their rights.
“I gain faith in a system that believes in Equal Law and Justice for all”.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2026
The writer is from 21st CTP, who resigned from the civil service in 2001, she taught English literature to post-graduates at Kinnaird College