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 are nurtured here and then slaughtered as scheduled.
A Personal Investment Story
A conversation with my cousin in Peshawar back in 2013. She spoke of a building in Islamabad: apartments on instalments. We decided to invest together since we are great friends and love our nostalgic chats about Murree, our parents, and our childhood. Destiny! We thought. I invested in an apartment on the 11th floor. Coming from a family that reveres Hazrat Abdul Qadir Gilani, known as Ghaus-ul-Azam, Ghaus Pak, the number “11” holds, and still holds, a sacred reference in our family.
The final instalment of my apartment was paid to BNP in 2016, and, ironically, that same year, the CDA sealed the building. Being a fatalist and having faith in the plans the universe has for me, I immediately remembered Margalla Towers, 2005. The OCA building was not a tragedy. This was a 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.
Relief and Renewed Hope
In 2020, the building was de-sealed. Relief came without warning. It felt like restitution. I was among the paid-in-full category, parking spot purchased, utility bills paid in advance. 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 an extraordinary scenic location, a superior vision of living.
The euphoria did not last long, as in 2023 the CDA seized the building. The developer’s lease was cancelled. I watched with no illusions. The CDA could not operate that structure. Seven-star hospitality demands specialist facility management. KFM had performed, while the CDA could not. It would end in a disaster, I thought.
The Legal and Human Cost
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, and maintenance. Chaos followed with this CDA takeover. The Residents Committee fumbled. Utility billing was done under the new setup, new power and no competence. A vacuum appeared. Some played the role of owner, some ranked with the authorities backing, as the CDA could not take full control. The developer was in court.
On 30 April 2026, the Islamabad High Court dismissed the developer’s writ petition. I thought it was 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 their right sense would allow this midnight takeover. There had to be a pre-plan, I thought.
I recalled the FIA report of 2017. It had been revealed that the developer did not act alone in getting any favour from the CDA, if he did. The CDA colluded at every juncture. Top-tier officials facilitated, and now here was a court decision that upheld the CDA’s version, and the blame narrowed to one man: the developer. What of the CDA? What of the office holders who signed, stamped, and enabled the developer in all the years they say he was facilitated?
A Plea for Equal Justice
My concluding note on this story is: I am a sub-lessee of an apartment in this narrative, but I expect equal application of the 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 the 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 are 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 the CDA? Demolish it with the same licence, with the same confidence and disregard for the personal grief of owners, the way Bari Imam and Saidpur operations were conducted. The way every other illegal structure is demolished.
I am aware that I will 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.
