Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif ordered the formation of a Joint Investigation Team (JIT) to investigate matters surrounding the controversial One Constitution Avenue project.
An officer from the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) will head the high-level inquiry team. The JIT will include representatives from five other key state agencies:
Federal Investigation Agency (FIA)
Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP)
Federal Board of Revenue (FBR)
Intelligence Bureau (IB)
Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI)
The prime minister directed NAB to issue the official JIT notification and handle all secretarial support. This intervention follows Sharif’s earlier decision to stop the Capital Development Authority (CDA) and the Islamabad administration from taking further enforcement action against the luxury project until a final executive decision is reached.
The state’s eviction operation began after the Islamabad High Court upheld a previous CDA decision to cancel the project’s plot over severe payment defaults. Following the court ruling, authorities issued formal eviction notices to the building’s residents. Many apartment owners had already begun vacating their premises under a heavy police presence.
The underlying dispute stems from the developing company’s failure to fulfill its financial obligations. Although the Supreme Court ordered the firm in 2019 to pay Rs 17.5 billion in installments over an eight-year period, the company has paid only Rs 2.9 billion so far. The new probe aims to uncover financial irregularities and determine how the project stalled so significantly.
