IHC maintains stay on new allotments

Islamabad High Court (IHC) upheld a stay on the allotment of plots by the civic agency in the federal capital until the last displaced person is compensated.

The court also upheld the directive that auctioned plots can be allotted.

This was directed by a single-member bench of the IHC, comprising Chief Justice Athar Minallah, as he presided over a case about compensating affectees of land acquired by the Capital Development Authority to develop various sectors of the federal capital.

During Wednesday’s hearing, the IHC directed the CDA’s member to appear in person and explain why the state has failed to compensate the affectees even after the passage of four decades.

The petitioner’s counsel told the court that land in Sector I-12 had been acquired by the CDA in 1968 and 1976. Plots in this sector were handed over to allottees after 40 years on October 8, 2020.

However, the allotments were cancelled gratuitously after just 20 days.

At this, the chief justice asked why were allottees given plots after 40 years and then why was the decision overturned after just 20 days.

He added that the objections raised by the petitioner exhibited an absence of rule of law.

The court then summoned the related member of CDA and a senior official from the Federal Government Employees Housing Authority (FGEHA) in place of its director-general and adjourned further hearings until Monday, November 16.

This is the third time that the court has extended the stay on the allotment of new plots in the federal capital since October last year when the stay had been imposed.

In December 2019, the court had observed that in case the CDA failed to do so, the court will order the auction of plots to compensate the affectees, who had been suffering for the past 50 years, he added.

In September 2020, the court learnt that plots had been allotted despite the court’s orders. Expressing its displeasure on the issue, the court had summoned a detailed report from the FGEHA director-general.

“Who are the people to whom plots were allotted despite the court’s stay order? Give a report to the court. Under what authority ministry of housing kept on allotting plots despite the court’s orders. No one will be allotted plot unless compensation is paid to affectees. The ban will remain in place unless the last affectee of Islamabad is paid compensation,” the IHC chief justice had remarked.

The court in a subsequent written order had questioned the authorities responsible for granting permission for the allotment of plots in the capital despite the stay order. It had further directed the FGEHA director general to submit a report on it in two weeks.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 12^th, 2020.