A two-member bench of Islamabad High Court – comprising Chief Justice Athar Minallah and Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani – Thursday announced the verdict in a case concerning allotment of plots to judges, bureaucrats, and government officials in special sectors of Islamabad.
The court declared the schemes intended to be launched in Sectors F-12, F-14, F-15, and G-12 illegal, unconstitutional, and against the public interest.
The judgment also mentioned that the draw for allotting plots in Sectors F-14 and F-15 held on August 17, 2021 was not transparent. It said neither the Federal Government Employees Housing Authority (FGEHA) nor the federal government had the jurisdiction to launch the scheme.
“Neither the FGEHA nor the federal government is vested with power or jurisdiction under the FGEHA Act or the CDA Ordinance, as the case may be, to launch a scheme or frame a policy which is contrary to the public interest and violative of the constitutionally guaranteed rights of the people at large,” it said, says a news report.
“The assets of the state acquired through the inherent intrusive power of eminent domain can only be used for the benefit of the people at large and in public interest,” it read.
The federal government is expected to formulate and frame policies for the development of Sectors F-12, G-12, F-14 and F-15 solely for the benefit of the general public and in the public interest, rather than enriching a few elites at the expense of the exchequer, it added.
The IHC said that the federal cabinet might have been kept in the dark about the repercussions of allotting the plots.
“In the records presented before the cabinet, the process of allotting plots was not mentioned.”
