SC directs criminal proceedings against officers sub-letting official residences

Tells CDA to pay compensation to Sector F-11 affectees identified by a commission

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the Ministry of Housing and Works to submit details of illegal occupants of government houses with directions to initiate criminal proceedings against officials who have sublet units.

A three-member SC bench, headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Gulzar Ahmed and comprising Justice Ijazul Ahsan and Justice Sajjad Ali Shah, heard the suo moto notice regarding illegal allotment of government houses.

During Tuesday’s proceedings, the court asked how many government houses in Islamabad are illegally occupied. The CJP observed that the situation will drastically improve if even 50 fraudulent officers were terminated from service.

He said that it has been observed that 80 per cent of officers sublet the houses they get from the government.

There were instances where officers have built their homes, but are not ready to leave the government residence, he added.

The top judge declared that officers forcibly taking over government houses were dishonest. He asked whether government officers who had sub-let government houses, eligible to stay on the job.

Chief Justice Ahmed told the Ministry of Housing and Works Secretary Dr Imran Zeb Khan to halt allotting homes to government officials. The secretary said that the ministry was working out a plan for government houses.

Dr Imran added that the total number of government houses in the country was 28,000. Of these, 17,800 were in Islamabad. He added that the ministry has evicted illegal occupants from 1,517 government houses. The chief justice asked what action is being taken against officers who had illegally occupied government residences.

Later, hearing of the case was adjourned for two weeks.

Sector F-11 affectees

The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed the Capital Development Authority (CDA) to pay the 92 affectees of Islamabad’s sector F-11 Bekha Syedan.

This was directed by a three-member bench of the apex court, headed by Justice Umar Ata Bandial while hearing a case relating to the payment of compensation to victims of F-11 Bekha Syedan.

During Tuesday’s hearing, Justice Bandial asked the CDA to pay claims to the victims which had been verified by the commission.

He said the Islamabad High Court shall decide about the remaining victims per law. He asked whether this case was over yet or not. At this, the counsel for affectees lamented that the case has been pending since 2009.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 29^th, 2020.