SCBA leased hostel built for lawyers to hotel for Rs2.7m per month in Islamabad

PAC summons SCBA ex-president, CDA chairman

ISLAMABAD: The Public Accounts Committee summoned Attorney General for Pakistan (AGP), Capital Development Authority (CDA) chairman, Islamabad chief commissioner, deputy commissioner, former Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) president Ali Zafar to explain renting out a Bar Complex building to a private hotel.

Accountant General of Pakistan (AGP) Javed Jahangir informed the committee that CDA, on former prime minister Yousaf Raza Gilani's instruction, had allotted a plot measuring 33,000 square yards to Supreme Court Bar Association for lawyers' hostel and library at Rs4,500 per square yards.

The federal and Punjab governments provided funds for the construction of a building but after the completion of construction work in 2014, SCBA leased out the building to a local hotel for Rs2.7 million per month, he maintained.

The accountant general further informed the committee that the CDA had issued a number of notices to SCBA warning it that the plot was given for the hostel could not be used as a hotel. He said upon CDA's notices, the SCBA approached the Islamabad High Court (IHC) and sought stay order.

The CDA official informed the committee that months had passed since the last hearing of the case and stay on the issue had automatically been vacated.

Convener of the committee Noor Alam Khan directed the secretariat to write a letter to Supreme Court Chief Justice Asif Saeed Khosa and IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah to take notice of the issue.

"This is illegal, and we will not allow this to happen, we will return this facility to the lawyers" he said.

Noor Alam said the facility was meant to provide accommodation to the lawyers hailing from other cities to pursue their cases in the Supreme Court of Pakistan, but this was leased out to the local hotel.  

Published in The Express Tribune, October 17^th, 2019.