Islamabad real estate regulator law remains stalled amid absence of local government

ISLAMABAD: The lack of a local government setup in the federal capital has continued to delay implementation of a law for establishing a real estate regulatory authority in Islamabad, even though the legislation has remained in force for about six years.

The real estate (regulation and development) bill was introduced by PTI Senator Mohsin Aziz in 2017. It was examined by different committees before the Senate passed it on February 10, 2020, after incorporating amendments proposed by various stakeholders. The National Assembly later approved the bill on October 20, 2020, and it became an act of parliament after receiving presidential assent on November 9, 2020.

Under the law, the government was required to set up a six-member Real Estate Regulatory Authority within one year. The authority was meant to regulate and promote the real estate sector in order to improve efficiency and transparency, protect consumers and facilitate the sale of plots and real estate projects.

The law provided that the six-member body would include one nominee each from the chairperson of the Pakistan Engineering Council, the chairperson of the Pakistan Council of Architects, the speaker of the National Assembly and the chairman Senate. The remaining two members were to be selected by a three-member committee comprising the mayor of Islamabad, the CDA chairman and the joint secretary interior.

However, an incomplete authority was notified on October 20, 2021, under Section 21(1) of the Act, several months after the mayor’s term had ended. The four notified members were Senator Kauda Babar, Raja Khurram Nawaz, MNA, Fouzia Asad Khan, an architect, and Engineer Ijaz Ahmed Cheema.

The term of Islamabad’s last local government expired in February 2021, and elections have since been delayed under different pretexts. As a result, the authority could not be completed because the mayor, who is part of the statutory selection committee for choosing two members, has not been in office.

Senator Mohsin Aziz said the Act remained a valid and existing law. He said that once the bill received presidential assent, it became an act of parliament with full legal effect and continued to remain operative. He said delay or failure in implementation did not invalidate the law under settled constitutional principles.

He further said the legislation had not been enforced because of administrative and procedural issues rather than any weakness in the law or absence of a legal framework. Referring to the vacant office of mayor, he described it as a temporary procedural issue and not a defect in the law itself.

The senator said he had already moved a targeted amendment to remove this procedural obstacle and ensure continuity in the functioning of the selection committee even if there is no mayor. The RERA Amendment Bill 2026 was introduced in the house on February 23, 2026, and was referred to the committee on interior and narcotics.

When the committee considered the bill last week, the Ministry of Law indicated that it intended to repeal the real estate regulation and development law and bring its own legislation instead.

The Capital Development Authority also submitted a document to the Senate panel highlighting what it called a statutory conflict between the 2020 Real Estate Regulatory Authority Act and the existing CDA Ordinance. According to the document, the 2020 law created RERA to regulate large-scale projects and protect buyers, but its implementation overlaps with functions already being carried out by the CDA, creating duplication.

The document stated that the CDA already manages project registration and oversight of agents, which it said repeats tasks assigned to RERA. "Dual authorities add administrative and financial costs due to extra registration and compliance requirements," it added.

The CDA also said the 2020 law, which it described as being modeled on Dubai’s RERA, may not address local issues such as title trading and does not provide proper training for agents. It argued that overlapping institutions work against the public interest by complicating judicial review and wasting resources.

The authority recommended removing the overlap by placing powers within a single agency for greater efficiency. It further proposed that, to avoid a financial burden on the exchequer, the functions of RERA and the features of the 2020 law should be incorporated into the CDA Ordinance and the 2020 Act should be repealed. The CDA also called for changes in its legal framework aimed at transparency, fraud prevention, agent training and technological integration.