Residents vs DHA: Next stop Supreme Court

DHA taken to court over acquiring land illegally and selling it off to realtor.

RAWALPINDI:

The residents of Thakat Pari in Rawalpindi have taken the management of Defence Housing Authority (DHA) to court. The reason was illegal acquisition of their land for the purpose of developing a housing society for officials of the armed forces.

After a petition was registered in the Rawalpindi Bench of the Lahore High Court (LHC), the Supreme Court has now taken a suo motu over the incident.

Sameer Qadir, a resident of the area told The Express Tribune that the land was “taken over” without the consent of the locals. DHA administration, in their reply, said the land was acquired for a housing society. The locals, however, maintain that it was later sold to Bahria Town administration for commercial purposes.

The residents challenged DHA’s notification issued on March 10, 2006 under section 6 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894, for urgent acquisition of 2,294 kanals situated in Mauza Thakat Pari.

The petition said that the land was acquired for Army Welfare Housing Scheme, which was later converted into DHA, to meet the housing requirements of army personnel at the state’s expense.

Colonel Abdul Qadir and Dr Anis Abbasi, petitioners and residents of the area, maintained that there is no law that authorises or empowers DHA to acquire land for providing housing facilities to members of the armed forces. They noted that the notification issued by DHA did not mention that the federation has required the land.

According to Land Acquisition Act, 1894, they said, land can only be acquired for any public purpose by the state after “compensation has been paid from the public revenue”. If the land is to be acquired for a company then the relevant provincial government must be satisfied that the acquisition is needed for work which is likely to be useful to the public.

In an earlier petition to Lahore High Court Rawalpindi Bench, the residents of the area held that DHA was neither a company registered under Companies Ordinance, 1884, nor a society registered under the Cooperative Societies Act. They also said that DHA does not have the status of a local authority.

“Parliament has the power to promulgate a law for the compulsory acquisition of land meant to provide housing facilities to personnel of the armed forces,” Qadir told The Express Tribune. He said that it is the constitutional right of every citizen to enjoy
the protection of the law and to be treated in accordance with it.

Director Land of DHA, Colonel Bokhari, refused to comment on the issue when contacted. He suggested that the authority’s administrator should be contacted instead. Responding to a question, he said he was only answerable to his department and no one else could press him for the same. However, a spokesperson of the authority said that it was Bahria Town not DHA that had acquired land from the residents for commercial purposes.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 19^th, 2011.