ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court (SC) on Thursday took suo motu notice of the closure of road leading to the Aabpara Market while hearing a separate case against the Capital Development Authority (CDA).
SC noticed that the adjoining road near the headquarters of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) was barricaded for security reasons.
Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Mian Saqib Nisar remarked, “We will not allow the barricading of roads on the pretext of security.”
Justice Nisar asked the CDA chairman to open the road for public, directing him to submit a report on Friday and tell who closed the road and when. The CDA chairman assured the top court that similar barricades in front of Islamabad’s hotels had been removed earlier.
When a lawyer pointed out that several roads were blocked in Rawalpindi Cantt as well, the chief justice responded that a request had to be submitted to the top court to have those routes opened.
“The law should be equal for all,” the CJP added.
REMOVE ENCROACHMENTS IN FRONT OF SERENA, MARRIOTT HOTELS:
On March 14, a three-member bench of the apex court headed by the CJP and comprising Justice Umar Ata Bandial and Justice Ijazul Ahsan heard the suo motu notice case regarding illegal constructions of housing societies in Murree hills for two weeks.
SC had ordered the CDA to remove all barricades in front of the two five star hotels in Islamabad, Serena and the Marriott hotels. It had directed that the roads should remain open for the public, and that the roadblocks placed along the Agha Khan Road and Khayaban-e-Suhrawardy should be removed.
The top court had sought a compliance report on the action by Thursday and instructed the Islamabad police to set up temporary checkpoints on roads to ensure the security for the hotels.