Lahore High Court (LHC) Chief Justice Ijaz Ahmad Chaudhry on Friday reserved judgement on a writ petition questioning the allotment of houses in Punjab government’s Ashiana Housing Scheme, which was originally launched to provide inexpensive and adequate residential facility to low income group in the province.
Petitioner, Iftikhar Hussian, through Javed Iqbal Jafree, alleged that the allotment being conducted under the scheme was not transparent and fair as “blue-eyed” of authorities running the scheme were being gratified and given houses while the deserving were being left out. He pointed out that six months had lapsed however the draw results had not been made public. The petitioner prayed the court for passing a direction to the respondents to infuse transparency and equity in the scheme so that deserving people could benefit from it.
Additional Advocate General Hanif Khatana submitted that draw of allotment of houses was purely on merit and its results were placed on internet. He said there were no malafide intentions of the government in this scheme but to facilitate the needy to make their houses. After hearing arguments from both sides the CJ reserved the verdict.
