ISLAMABAD: Islamabad High Court (IHC) Justice Athar Minallah has suspended a housing scheme meant for the legal fraternity situated on Park Road, according to a report in the local media on Tuesday.
Earlier, Justice Minallah had declared a housing society meant for the Federal Government Employees Housing Foundation (FGEHF) in sectors F-14 and F-15 illegal. In that case too, apart from senior bureaucracy, employees of constitutional bodies, serving and retired judges were the stakeholders.
Moreover, this time around, the housing scheme which came under IHC’s scrutiny was launched by the Supreme Court Bar Association Housing Scheme (SCBAHS). Some 3,000 lawyers, over two dozen judges of the Supreme Court and provincial high courts and some retired judges were beneficiaries in this case.
The Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) managed to get a ‘directive’ from former prime minister Raja Pervez Ashraf during his last days in power to set up a cooperative housing society. In 2013, the Supreme Court Bar Association petitioned before the apex court for execution of the prime minister’s order.
“That the Land Acquisition Collector (LAC) of Islamabad notified acquisition of land under section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 on April 29, 2015 upon the requisition of Federal Government Employees Housing Foundation (FGEHF) for establishment of a housing scheme for the members of the SCBA and the said notification of acquisition was published in the extraordinary Gazette of Pakistan dated May 2, 2015,” the petition stated.
The petitioner filed objections against the said notification under section 4 before the LAC but those objections against the acquisition remained in abeyance despite reminder, it further said. “The society owns more than 1,000 kanals falling in the land acquired through impugned notification dated October 28, 2016,” the petition read.
“The petitioner raised hue and cry against the illegal actions of the land acquisition collector and assailed the acquisition proceedings through objection petitions, but the collector remained indifferent therefore, the petitioner became party into the proceeding before the Supreme Court. However, its application was disposed of adding that the review petition in this matter was also dismissed by the apex court on technical grounds without formal adjudication of the grievance raised by the petitioner,” the petition read.
The petition also claimed that the issue is very important as it involves the grievance of the petitioner and around 20,000 to 25,000 people living in the land/area acquired through notification of acquisition dated October 28, 2016. The petition also pointed out that the order of the land acquisition collector was approved by the chief commissioner Islamabad, the same day.
“The Capital Development Authority (CDA) Ordinance, 1960, is a special law under which the CDA is the only forum to acquire the land for development of housing society, adding that the proposed acquisition of land is also in violation of the prime minister’s directive which required the ministries of housing, law, the Finance Division and Pak Public Works Department to launch a housing scheme through Cooperative Housing Society for the members of the Supreme Court Bar Association but unluckily the FGEHF started a financial venture and that too by way of having recourse to illegal acquisition mechanism for establishing a housing scheme for legal fraternity on parity basis,” the petition read.
The petition also insisted that the issuance of subject notification under Land Acquisition Act, 1894, is against law because the federal government had declined permission for acquisition of the subject land. Registrar office will fix the next date for hearing.