ISLAMABAD
ONLINE
“Capital Development Authority (CDA) first allows building encroachments which then results in formation of illegal slums. Blocking public passages will not be allowed in the name of security,” Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui of Islamabad High Court (IHC) said Wednesday while hearing Centaurus encroachment case.
CDA Chairman Maroof Afzal, prosecutor Fazlur Rehman Niazi and Dr Babar Awan, counsel for the petitioner appeared in the court.
Justice Siddiqui grilled CDA Chairman Maroof Afzal on CDA Enforcement Department’s failure to rid the thoroughfare of Centaurus’s encroachment which had been established in the name of security.
“The fundamental rights of Pakistanis and general public are being trampled. Big hotels including Mariot, Serena and malls such as Centaurus have blocked the entire city in the name of security while CDA staff is doing little to resolve the issue. It is CDA itself which first issues NOC and then later gets in trouble when illegal occupations are made,” the court remarked.
Speaking during the hearing, the CDA chairman said that Centaurus would not be allowed to carry out any illegal occupation nor raising the illegal wall will be allowed in the name of security. He told the court that it was correct that encroachments had been raised in federal capital.
Justice Siddiqui asked the CDA chairman that illegal things should not take place in his presence. The entire job was being done in connivance with CDA Enforcement Department. He remarked there could be threat to a cinema in Centaurus but no care was taken for the rights of the citizens.
The court sought from CDA chairman the details of all encroachments including constructions around Centaurus and encroachments in all sectors of federal capital within four days and adjourned the hearing of the case.
