No end to one man’s struggle to reclaim grabbed property

Alleged land grabber’s challenge to civil court’s eviction orders to be taken up today

ISLAMABAD: Over 40 years ago, the CDA launched Sector E-7 in the capital. Khawaja Abdul Sami and his wife were among the lucky ones who were successful in the plots balloting process.

Fast forward to today, and with favourable judgements from the highest courts in the country in his favour, Sami still cannot take possession of his land with a lawyer having forcibly occupied the land.



Sami and his wife, who had just gotten married, had thought that it would be a good investment if they applied for plots in the city. When the Capital Development Authority (CDA) drew the ballots, Sami missed out. However, his sorrow soon turned to joy after he learnt that his wife had proved to be the lucky allottee of a two-Kanal plot in Sector E-7. The couple, over subsequent years, paid in full the value of the plot.

“It has been almost 35 years since I first lodged a complaint with the CDA against the illegal occupation [of my land] in 1983,” said Sami, recounting how one day in 1983 he left his office in Rawalpindi to go see the plot but instead saw a house standing on the piece of land.

When Sami approached the CDA, he discovered that the plot had been sold by his wife through an attorney. However, he said that neither he nor his wife had ever appointed the lawyer.

The couple has been embroiled in litigation over the piece of land ever since with both the Islamabad High Court and the Supreme Court of Pakistan ruling in his favour.

Hailing from Karachi, the now 77-year-old Sami has to travel to the federal capital from the southern port city every time there is a court hearing —a sessions court is due to hear the case on Tuesday as you read this. Earlier this month, Islamabad Civil Judge Shaista Kundi sent a bailiff to execute orders of the high court.

The bailiff visited the contentious property on December 8 to ask the illegal occupants to hand over possession to Sami.

Suhail Ahmed, a lawyer who allegedly occupies the land, together with several of his colleagues resisted efforts of the bailiff and other officials to evict them.

However, with the help of the police, the bailiff was finally able to secure possession of the land and hand it over to Sami.

But the very next day, Suhail re-occupied the house in defiance of court orders.  The Kohsar police have now registered a case against Suhail and his brother, but the house remains in the lawyer’s possession. An officer from the Kohsar police, while confirming the FIR, said that the house remains under Suhail’s occupation.

“This poor man [Sami] has been fighting his case for decades. Some lawyers from the bar are supporting Suhail even though they know it is wrong,” the policeman lamented.

Meanwhile, the court’s bailiff who went to execute the court’s orders has also approached the police and submitted a separate complaint against the group of lawyers who resisted them. The bailiff said that the lawyers had allegedly attacked and threatened him.

Among others, the bailiff has accused Advocate Riasat Ali Azad — currently running for the president’s slot in the Islamabad Bar Elections scheduled to be held in the coming weeks —of threatening him and using offensive language.



Suhail, meanwhile, has challenged the order of the civil judge before a district and sessions court, which will take up the case today (Tuesday).

When contacted by The Express Tribune for his comment, Suhail responded simply by stating that he was busy and did not say anything about the case.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 12^th, 2017.