Leasing of railway land challenged in SC

ISLAMABAD – A joint constitutional petition challenging a lease agreement, involving 1,128 kanals of prime land of Pakistan Railways in Lahore city, executed between the government of Pakistan and a Malaysian consortium associated by two Pakistani’s Lahore based companies- Husnain Construction Company (Pvt) Ltd and Unicon Consulting Service (Pvt) Ltd- on July 26, 2001 was filed before the Supreme Court on Friday.
The petition was filed by Ishaq Khan Khakwani, former MNA and Dr Mubashir Hassan, founder member of PPP under Article 184(3) of the Constitution making the government of Pakistan through Secretary Establishment Division, Railways Minister, Railways Board, Maxcorp Development Sdn Bhd of Malaysia, Husnain Construction Company (Pvt) Limited, Unicon Consulting Services (Pvt) Limited and a dozen other senior government’s officials as respondents.
The petitioner prayed the court to declare the lease given for 49-yaers as void. He further prayed the court to direct for recovery of assessed losses to Railways department from the lessees.
He pleaded for cancellation of contract to Executive Director, Marketing and Non-Rail Business of Ministry of Railways in Islamabad, Maxcorp Development Sdn Bhd Malaysia, Husnain Construction Company (Pvt) Limited and Unicon Consulting Services (Pvt) Limited of Lahore to have been made in utter violation of Articles 2-A, 3, 4 and 25 of the Constitution.
They further pleaded that the action adopted in the contract be declared to have been taken in violation of Articles 29, 30, 31 and 38 of the Constitution, thus the agreement, was void ab initio.
It has further been prayed that punitive legal proceedings be initiated against Lt Gen (r) Javed Ashraf Qazi, former Federal Minister for Railways, Lt Gen (r) Saeed-uz-Zafar, Ex-Secretary/Chairman, Railways, Khurshid Alam Khan, Ex-Secretary/Chairman Railways, Maj Gen (r) Hamid Hassan Butt, Ex-General Manager and all the members of the Executive Committee of Railways including Secretary Railways, General Manager (Operations), General Manager (S&M) and General Manager (Finance), for committing huge corruption.
He requested the court to protect the interest of the members of the old Railways Golf Club and the premises leased to the consortium and its associates be restored to the management of the old Railways Golf Club.