Non-conforming use : PPP given week’s notice to shift office

Party’s central secretariat is located in residential area

ISLAMABAD: The top court has given one week’s time to the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) for vacating its office from residential area of G-6.

The two-member bench comprising Justice Ejaz Afzal, and Justice Faisal Arab hearing the petition against encroachment in the residential areas, said that if the Islamabad Inspector General Police defied the order then action would be taken against him.

During the hearing, Shahid Hamid, representing the CDA, informed that the PPP office in G-6 could not been sealed due to inference by the occupants.

He said that an application had been lodge at the police station for registration of FIR.

Sardar Latif Khosa, representing the PPP, said that the present location had been under use, ever since the time of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.

He said that the violation had been for decades. Upon that, Justice Ejaz Afzal remarked, does it mean the violation of law be allowed to continue. Hamid told that Islamabad IGP, and the IGP Motorways had not responded to their notices and violating the law. “They have been asked to explain their position to the CDA office,” he added.

Hamid said that the CDA was proceeding against all the non-conforming users of residential premises without discrimination in compliance of the Supreme Court’s 15 September 2015 order.

The CDA counsel submitted the compliance report, wherein it is submitted that JI, PML-Q and PTI offices have been sealed, while APML, PML-N and the PPPP have voluntarily moved their offices.

Hamid submitted a report that so far 93 properties under non-conforming use (NCU) policy have been sealed, while 263 owners/occupiers had voluntarily brought their properties to conforming use.

The report said that still 1,339 properties were still in non-conforming use. The report said that there were different commercial plots available for auction. It said that in the coming auction approximately 800,000 sq ft space would be available to cater to commercial needs. Regarding the erection of barricades around foreign embassies, the CDA’s counsel also informed that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had been asked to take up the matter with the embassies.

The hearing of case is adjourned for two weeks.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 22^nd,  2016.