Like many others, the Grand Avenue Housing Project is based on lies and deception By Shahab Omer
O
ur readers might feel at this point that every week, come hell or high water, no matter what else is going on in the world of Pakistani business, economics, and finance there is always at least one story about a massive real estate project that is a fraud. Trust us when we say that we are a bit tired of it as well at this point. Particularly because it feels like all of these projects use the same classic techniques to defraud people. This week, we are bringing to you the case of the Grand Avenue Project on Lahore’s main Ferozpur road. Many things will be familiar the overselling of files, the paying off of real es-
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tate agents, the grabbing of land, and generally shady activities. All of these tricks of the trade we point out nearly every week ad nauseum. But what can we do as well? Every week there is a new project getting up to the same old things with some twist of their own - that is how prevalent real estate fraud is in Pakistan. It preys on people with dreams of investing or making a house of their own one day. And that, perhaps, the most sinister part of this constantly repeated vicious cycle.
Development extravaganza
B
etween 2008 and 2010, when Mian Shehbaz Sharif returned to the Punjab Chief Minister’s office, even though his party had lost the election at
the center, they were in a good position for the next five years. With democracy finally returned, the PML-N would silently allow the PPP to blunder their way through running the federal government, pointing out their foreign policy mishaps and all other little things they were getting wrong. And while the PPP faced the heat, Shehbaz Sharif would go on a flashy glow-up project on Punjab - mostly Lahore. Roads were remade, overhead bridges were constructed, and underpasses were being built every other day. It was an infrastructural lollapalooza in Lahore and voters loved it. Thus, it was a good place to be. But what this also did was heat up the real estate market in Punjab, and without any eye to regulating these privately led projects, it is something Punjab is still suffering from today. Take Lahore’s Ferozepur Road for example.
