IHC bars allotment of goverment residences

ISLAMABAD:

Islamabad High Court (IHC) has barred allotment of state-owned houses to government employees in Islamabad except those on the general waiting list.

IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah issued the order on the petition filed by five employees of the Capital Development Authority (CDA).

The court in its order said that no government employee should be allotted a house out of turn on the general waiting list in Islamabad until further orders.

Minallah ordered the CDA and other respondents in the case to submit a reply in two weeks.

The order stated that the employees have accused that only relatives and acquaintances of people in power were rewarded in allotment of plots and houses.

The petitioners said that they were eligible for a state-owned house but the authority was violating the high court’s orders.

They added that the favourite people have illegally been moved up on the general waiting list while some of those listed were not even eligible for a residence.

The employees have maintained that the allotment of plots could not be done discretionary.

Meanwhile, IHC Chief Justice Minallah reprimanded a lawyer for attending hearing while suffering from cold and fever. He asked the advocate if he had gotten himself tested for coronavirus and adjourned the hearing stating that there was a threat to the health of all present.

IHC summoned a detailed report from the Secretary Health Ministry, once again expressing anger on the presence of doctors in the courtroom.

The government’s lawyer apprised that he was sick but came to the court to attend the hearing after which he was directed to sit on the backbench.

Some five doctors appeared before the court along with their lawyer as the IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah presided over the case related to doctors’ promotion on Saturday.

The health practitioners maintained that the government violated the court’s orders issued on October 24, 2019.

A female doctor informed the court that she had to take off from her duty due to the hearing. At this, the court expressed ire and stated that she should have stayed at the hospital where she was much needed. The court asked why no one appeared to represent the health ministry.

However, the government’s counsel, Murad Baloch, told that he was sick and not feeling well but he came to the court to attend the hearing.

Chief justice asked if he has undergone a coronavirus test and directed him to go on the backbench.

The lawyer replied that his test resulted back negative.

Minallah congratulated him and remarked that the lawyer should get himself tested four to five times to ascertain if he was not infected with the pandemic virus. He added that otherwise, all people present in the courtroom would have to go in the quarantine. Chief justice said that the coronavirus cases were on the rise once again. Pointing out the doctors’ lawyer Anjum, Minallah said that he was not even wearing a facemask. At this, Anjum took out a mask from his pocket and put it on his face.

The hearing was adjourned for two weeks.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 27^th, 2020.