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Chief Justice of Pakistan Gulzar Ahmed has been allotted a plot in Sector F-15/3.
Two aides to the prime minister, judges of the superior judiciary and top bureaucrats are among the successful applicants for allocation of residential plots in Islamabad’s F-14 and F-15 sectors, according to a list posted by the Federal Government Employees Housing Authority (FGEHA) on its website after ballot on Tuesday.
Federal Housing Minister Tariq Bashir Cheema chaired the proceedings. Over 4,500 applicants were declared successful.
According to the list, Chief Justice of Pakistan Gulzar Ahmed has been allotted a plot in Sector F-15/3.
Dr Waqar Masood Khan, the Prime Minister’s Special Assistant on Finance (SAPM), was given a plot in F-15/4, while Dr Shahzad Arbab, the SAPM on Establishment, got a plot in Sector F-14/2. Both of them had applied for plots before their retirement from government service.
Judges of the superior judiciary, as well as those of the subordinate judiciary, and a few journalists have been placed in Category I — plots measuring one kanal.
The allottees include former chief justices Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry and Anwar Zaheer Jamali. The latter’s wife, Justice Ashraaf Jahan of the Sindh High Court (SHC), was among the successful applicants as well.
Eight incumbent judges of the apex court featured in the list. They are: Justice Umar Ata Bandial, Justice Qazi Mohammad Amin Ahmed, Justice Maqbool Baqir, Justice Mazhar Alam Khan Miankhel, Justice Sardar Tariq Masood, Justice Aminud Din Khan, Justice Ijazul Hassan and Justice Sajjad Ali Shah.
Seven retired judges of the Supreme Court were declared successful. They are: Justices Ejaz Afzal Khan, Manzoor Ahmed Malik , Amir Hani Muslim, Iqbal Hameedur Rehman, Rana Mohammad Shamim, Sheikh Najamul Hassan and Riaz Ahmed Khan have also been allotted plots.
Two former directors general of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) — Ghalib Bandesha and Bashir Memon — a former inspector general of Islamabad, Tahir Alam, Orya Maqbool Jan, the Secretary to Cabinet Division Ahmed Nawaz Sukhera, a number of other federal secretaries and bureaucrats working in BS-22 and 21 are among the allottees. (Orya Maqbool Jan was the strong critic of this plot policy, however he applied for one and was successful. Hippcracy at its best.)
Six district and sessions judges of Islamabad figure on the list. They are: Kamran Basharat Mufti, Raja Jawad Abbas Hassan, Mohammad Bashir, Tahir Mehmood, Wajid Ali and Shahrukh Arjumand.
Nine additional district and sessions judges were declared successful. They are: Abida Sajjad, Rakhshanda Shaheen, Atta Rabbani, Raja Asif Mehmood, Jahangir Awan, Iram Niazi, Faizan Haider, Mohammad Adnan and Zeba Chaudhry.
While the judges of all the provincial high courts have been allotted plots in F-14 and F-15, not a single judge from the Islamabad High Court was among the applicants.
Full List of Allotees
IHC ruling
Chief Justice Athar Minallah of the Islamabad High Court had upheld identical petitions against the acquisition of land for the two sectors in his judgement of Oct 2017.
“The entire machinery involved in the acquisition of land through the police force, from the chief commissioner to the land acquisition collector, has a financial interest in the foundation — to get a plot at a price lower than what it would fetch through a transparent sale,” Justice Minallah noted.
“The beneficiaries (of both sectors) are serving or retired officers and employees of federal ministries, divisions, attached departments… judges of the superior courts, i.e. the honourable Supreme Court, all the high courts, Azad Jammu and Kashmir Supreme Court and the Chief Court and Supreme Appellate Court of Gilgit-Baltistan, as well as the Federal Shariat Court.”
Criticising the allotment of plots to the judges of Islamabad’s district courts, the judgement said these judges who “would ultimately hear and decide references of the affectees under section 18 of the Acquisition Act, have either already availed the benefit or have applied to the foundation for plots, thus... having a personal financial interest in the cases before them”.
The Supreme Court had, however, set aside the IHC verdict.
SAPMs, judges, others allotted plots in Islamabad’s new sectors
CJP Gulzar Ahmed has been allotted a plot in Sector F-15/3.
www.dawn.com
A four-judge special bench, led by Justice Mushir Alam and also comprising Justice Umar Ata Bandial, Justice Qazi Faez Isa and Justice Ijazul Ahsan, reserved its judgment on January 14 this year.
According to the FGEHA’s list of applicants and allottees available on its website, seven of the serving judges of the apex court have applied for plots in the scheme.
Advocate Hassan Mann, who pleaded the matter on behalf of affectees of land acquisition at the IHC, had said the real issue is that the land is being acquired for the benefit of a privileged class. However, this land could fetch more than Rs500 billion to the exchequer, if auctioned on a commercial basis.
He had said: “This is a case concerning public revenue. Instead of generating revenue for public exchequer, the FGEHA is usurping the sovereign privilege of eminent domain to line the pockets of its members.”
The beneficiaries of FGEHA scheme are serving or retired officers and employees of federal ministries, divisions, attached departments and judges of the superior courts – the SC, all high courts, Azad Kashmir Supreme Court and the Chief Court and the Supreme Appellate Court of Gilgit-Baltistan and the Federal Shariat Court, Mann said earlier.
Supreme Court judge Justice Qazi Faez Isa, in his additional note, declared that laws governing civil and armed forces personnel do not entitle them to receive residential plots, commercial plots or agricultural land.
"The prevailing practice of granting State/public plots and land to members of the Armed Forces is contrary to the Constitution and the law. Laws can also not be enacted to enable such allotments/grants because if enacted these would violate the Constitution (Articles 24, 25, 205 and 227). The Constitution does not permit self-enrichment and personal aggrandizement."
"During the period of Hazrat Umar (RA) at one occasion such a situation had arisen with regard to some land and the Mujahideen demanded distribution of the said land to them but the Caliph refused to give the said land to the Mujahideen with the consideration that Islam strictly prohibits the establishment of an individual interest in State property in preference to the public interest."
The judge also said that the leaders of the freedom movement, the All-India Muslim League, who created Pakistan, amongst whom were many who had lost their own homes, did not take a single square inch of land. These proud freedom fighters of Pakistan were also not remunerated nor pensioned. They spent from their own pockets to create Pakistan. Their only motivation was a burning desire to serve the people. The constitutional goal of ‘creating an egalitarian society’ is undermined when public land furtively finds its way into private hands, he adds.
"The judiciary and the armed forces of Pakistan are patterned on the British model. Land is not given away to judges and to the members of the armed forces in Britain, in the United States of America nor in any commonwealth country, with the singular exception of Pakistan. At the time when the subcontinent was captured and ruled by the East India Company, and later when it came under the direct rule of the British Crown, British officers, soldiers and judges, whether deployed in the subcontinent or serving at home, were not conferred land."
SC sets aside IHC verdict on federal housing scheme | The Express Tribune
Housing scheme is planned in sectors F-14 and F-15 of the federal capital
tribune.com.pk
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