CDA's 20 August letter tells Islamabad sponsors to display approved layout plans and publish them online

The Capital Development Authority (CDA) has told the sponsors of private housing schemes and projects in Islamabad to display their approved layout plans and publish them online. The instruction is in a Planning Wing letter dated 20 August 2026, which CDA listed on its public notices page on 21 August. We read the letter on 28 October 2026. These are CDA’s directions, and this article makes no statement on any scheme’s approval status.

What the letter says

CDA says it acted on a letter from the National Accountability Bureau’s Islamabad and Rawalpindi bureau, dated 11 May 2026. According to CDA, NAB observed that some sponsors misrepresent a scheme’s approval status by not displaying approved layout plans, or by showing outdated or unapproved plans.

CDA directs all sponsors to:

• Go online. Upload approved layout plans to their official websites and keep them updated.
• Display at sites. Show approved plans and their current status at the reception areas of all sites and booking offices. The display must be at least 7 by 5 feet, or suitably sized, and carry a QR code linked to the official website.
• Report. Send CDA a compliance report with photographs within 10 days. CDA says it will tell NAB about non-compliance, and NAB may take legal action.

The Clause 40 provisions it repeats

The letter reproduces parts of Clause 40 of CDA’s 2023 regulation for private housing, farm housing, apartment and commercial schemes in Zones 2, 4 and 5:

• Allotment letters issued by sponsors are to be shared with CDA through a digital system, at the cost of the sponsor.
• No allotment letter, whether original, provisional or through transfer, is to bear any credence unless vetted (signed and stamped) by the concerned Director (Planning) or an officer not below the rank of Director (Planning) specifically authorised by the Member (P&D). The letter says vetting is provided to schemes and projects whose sponsors have executed transferred and mortgaged deeds of plots or land in CDA’s favour.
• Only plots in an approved layout plan, or units in an approved building plan, may be allotted or transferred. Plots, units or land transferred to and mortgaged with CDA may not be allotted or transferred until redeemed.
• CDA will charge allottees and transferees a record maintenance fee: Rs 100 per square yard for residential plots and Rs 1,000 per square yard for commercial plots in private housing, farm housing and affordable housing schemes, and Rs 50 per square foot for apartments and Rs 100 per square foot for commercial units in apartment and commercial projects.
• Sponsors must keep a website, in an approved format and linked to CDA’s, listing land ownership, location, the approved plan, NOC, amenities, mortgaged plots, and the total residential, commercial and amenity plots.

The distribution list also asks the electricity and gas utilities to give service connections only in line with approved plans, and the Press Information Department not to allow advertisements without CDA approval.

What we could not confirm

We read the letter’s first pages and the start of its annex. We did not read the annex lists of schemes by zone. We found no report of how many sponsors complied or of any action taken since.

What buyers can check

Anyone considering a plot in an Islamabad private scheme may wish to ask the sponsor for its approved layout plan and website, and to check them with CDA. Our guide to checking an Islamabad scheme against CDA’s lists explains how to read CDA’s pages.