Court directions: IHC orders unsealing of shops in Sabzi Mandi

The shops were closed on July 4th as the petition had been deemed “infructuous"

ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Thursday ordered authorities to unseal the shops, which had earlier been sealed by the administration on the pretext of encroaching state land, due to which the right of way was blocked.

Justice Aamer Farooq instructed the concerned officials to unseal four shops, which were closed on July 4th as the petition had been deemed “infructuous”.

Interestingly, the Deputy Attorney General (DAG), Faisal Rafique, had submitted a request for the sealing of the shops in question, was made by the administrator of the market committee, who now conceded that he had not made the referred application. “The shops shall be de-sealed,” he said.

Justice Farooq noted that in view of the statement of the DAG, the petition had become “infructuous” and was accordingly disposed of.

The general secretary of Fruit Green Market at the Sabzi Mandi in Islamabad, Ashfaque Abbasi, along with four other petitioners, Muhammad Ashraf, Tayyab Rafique, Kamran Liaqat and Aftab Abbasi, had challenged the administration’s action of sealing the shops.

Secretary ministry of interior, the ICT’s chief commissioner, deputy commissioner, assistant commissioner, the magistrate Saddar Circle, administrator of the market committee, Capital Development Authority (CDA), the metropolitan corporation through mayor and the SHO of the Sabzi Mandi police were all listed as respondents.

In response to a report submitted before the Saddar magistrate carrying complaints regarding encroachment, the petition read, the assistant commissioner “in connivance and with collusion of the administrator, market committee sealed the shops of the petitioners forcibly.”

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