A three-member bench of the Supreme Court (SC) on Tuesday directed the Ministry of Housing and Works and the Estate Office (EO) to submit details regarding violations in the allotment sequence for government residences. The bench, comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice Khilji Arif Hussain and Justice Tariq Parvez, was hearing a case against illegal allotment of a house by the EO.
During the hearing, the chief justice remarked that corruption was rampant everywhere in the country, while the courts were being defamed. Joint Estate Officer Ahsen Naeem informed the court that only 17,000 government residences were currently available against 20,000 applications. The court however asked him to provide the details of all allotments made out of sequence. The CJ said people connected with a minister or high officials could succeed in getting official residences, while those without any influential support could not get a house. He said the allotment process should be made transparent. He said there were instances when one official had transferred his residence to his son — also a government official – and that the process continued through generations.
He said the system of allotment had been paralysed due to such practices. In the previous hearing, the court had ordered strict action against the EO authorities for keeping the allotment cases pending. In compliance with the court’s warning, a report was presented before the court on behalf of the Islamabad district and sessions judge, stating that most of the allotment cases were pending because the EO authorities usually reply in 6-7 months time.
