ISLAMABAD – The Supreme Court said on Tuesday that the allotment of state land to private housing society would encourage land mafia in the federal capital. The SC was hearing a suo motu case against the allotment of land worth billions in Sector E-11 by the Capital Development Authority (CDA) to Multi Professional Housing Society under the guise of development.
The three-member bench of Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice M Sair Ali and Justice Ghulam Rabbani noted that such allotment of public land to private housing societies would give rise to an infinite episode of grabbing state land The chief justice said if CDA could get its land vacated from land grabbers in Bani Gala, why could it not do so in Sector E-11.
He said the land in Sector E-11 was acquired by CDA in 1968 and it could only be developed by CDA, not by a private housing society. Khalid Anwar, CDA’s lawyer said no irregularities were committed while giving the land to the private housing society for development. The chief justice inquired whether the possession of land in Bani Gala was taken back by CDA. Anwar said some people had resisted, however, the land had been retrieved.
