ISLAMABAD: After several failed attempts to stop theft of its water supply by local PPP leader Raja Imran Ashraf at his H-9 farmhouse, the Capital Development Authority (CDA) on Monday issued a special notice on him to disconnect his four `illegal connections` by himself.

However, the younger brother of the former prime minister, Raja Pervez Ashraf, denied to Dawn the allegation.

`I have no illegal connections and am not aware of any notice,` he said.

CDA officer of the area, Imran Alvi, on the other hand, said he himself had visited the farmhouse of Mr Ashraf on Plot No. 1, Sector H-9, and found the source of illegal connections.

`That water was being stolen was evident outside, but we could not enter the farmhouse because of the presence of fierce-looking dogs there,` he said.

`Yesterday (Monday) we visited the farmhouse to serve the notice. Butthere was no one to receive it,` the of ficer said.

`We handed the notice to a CDA tubewell operator to deliver it to any servant of Imran Ashraf at the earliest.

Other CDA sources claimed that the Industrial Area police had been sitting on an application that CDA`s water directorate had submitted in November last year to register an FIR in this regard.

`I have no idea about the application you are talking about,` said DSP Industrial Area when asked about the same. `At the moment I can`t say whether we received the application or not.

In its application, available with Dawn, the CDA water directorate contended that some people of Sector H-9 have tampered with and punctured the water supply line for illegal water connections. Though CDA staff repaired the line repeatedly, owner of plots, including Imran Ashraf, Mr Ibrahim and several dwellers of theslum Christian colony of H-9, reconnected their illegal connections.

CDA insiders acknowledge that `there are thousands of cases like that of Raja Imran Ashraf`. They say the CDA has a complicated process of providing legal water connections.

`One has to submit a number of documents and pay a fee of about Rs12,000 to get a legal connection. So, many avoid seeking it,` say the insiders.

Whencontacted,RajaImranAshraf, said: `I purchased the farmhouse about 18 months back. There were some illegal water connections when I purchased the farmhouse, which I disconnected.

He also claimed that he applied for legal connection, which CDA denied.

About CDA`s application to police against him, he said that police inspected the farmhouse in pursuance of the application but found no illegal connection. After disconnecting the illegal connections several months back, he said he had been using water from a bore hole.