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In May 2026 NAB Rawalpindi-Islamabad alleged that the Islamabad Cooperative Housing Society (ICHS) had issued roughly 42,000 plot files while its approved layout plan and land bank supported only about 6,000 — leaving roughly 36,000 files with no land behind them. Investigators say they have detected financial irregularities exceeding Rs16 billion (expected to rise), and seven people — three former office-bearers and four associated land-dealers — were arrested. For more than a decade those files traded actively in the secondary market: real money changed hands repeatedly over paper claims to plots that, for most holders, could never physically exist.

Last reviewed: 1 Jun 2026

A November 2025 NAB Rawalpindi inquiry, compiled with the Cooperative Department and regulators, found that private and cooperative housing schemes across Islamabad and Rawalpindi had collectively oversold roughly 91,000 plots and files beyond their approved Layout Plans or actual land banks. Schemes advertised nearly 80,000 kanals of land that did not exist within their approved plans, private schemes alone sold about 26,000 plots in excess of their land, and around 20,000 memberships were issued against no land at all. In one cited case a scheme sought layout approval for only 4,000 kanals in 2022, marketed itself as an 80,000-kanal project, sold 30,000-40,000 plots and collected Rs50-60 billion — yet had acquired only ~34,000 kanals three years later. This is over-launching as a business model: sell the file first, find the land later (or never).

Last reviewed: 1 Jun 2026

Even where the land is real and titled, the plot-file habit parks money in ground that is never built on. A World Bank technical assessment found roughly 80% of formally developed plots in Lahore sit vacant — bought to be flipped, not occupied. Pakistan's tax structure reinforces this: recurring property tax falls largely on constructed buildings, not idle plots, so holding empty land is the rational choice for a speculator. PIDE (the government's own economic research institute) has long argued this 'dead capital' is a drag on growth: money locked in vacant plots earns no rent, builds no homes and — crucially — never triggers the cement, steel, fittings and labour spending that construction would. PIDE research in 2024 put the opportunity cost of state-captured / mis-used urban land at a scale measured in tens of percent of GDP.

Last reviewed: 1 Jun 2026

The secondary 'file' market thrives partly because so many societies were never approved to sell at all. As of 2025-26, the Rawalpindi Development Authority had declared over 300 of its ~400 societies illegal, and the Capital Development Authority listed 99 illegal schemes in Islamabad's Zones 3 and 4 for lacking NOC and layout-plan approvals. Plots in these schemes cannot get building permits, utility connections, or bank- and court-recognised title — yet their files still change hands at speculative prices. Separately, PIDE notes a typical society can take 15-20 years to develop, and the CDA has historically issued few or no completion certificates, so even 'legal' files can stay frozen as paper for a generation. The file market keeps capital liquid for speculators while the underlying land stays unbuilt.

Last reviewed: 1 Jun 2026