IHC orders illegal chambers razed
Chief Justice Islamabad High Court Justice Athar Minallah. PHOTO: FILE
The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Monday ordered the removal of all illegal structures, including chambers of lawyers, from a sports ground in the federal capital's Sector F-8 area.
The top court of the federal capital has directed the lawyers to move from their chambers from the F-8 football ground by February 28. Otherwise, the Capital Development Authority (CDA) will have these illegal structures removed by March 23.
The decision was given by a larger bench headed by IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah in a plea filed by a Sector F-8 resident, Shehnaz Butt, against the encroachment.
Lawyers had first started parking their cars in the ground and then started building chambers in 2013. Over a period of years, the occupation has become so profound that the district bar allots the chambers.
“The purported allotments made by the Islamabad District Bar in the playground are void and without jurisdiction and authority,” the verdict read.
In the case in hand, no one has given any justification nor quoted a law empowering the Islamabad District Bar to make purported allotments on state land for the construction of private chambers. No one could show any law that creates a right for every enrolled advocate to have the facility of a 'private chamber'.
The judgment further stated, "If the lawyers don't move from the ground, the federal government and the CDA should have it forcefully evicted by March 23."
The court also ordered to organise a football tournament between students of government schools on the same day to pay homage to Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, “the greatest lawyer of the subcontinent.”
Simultaneously, the verdict added, "the construction of the district court complex should be completed without delay." Officials must submit a report of its progress with the registrar on the first day of every month.
The judges also directed the government to take action against the officials encroaching on the state's land.
Moreover, "the government may ascertain the construction of a judicial complex for the lawyers by March 23, 2022".
On Monday, while expressing displeasure over last week's ransacking of the high court, Justice Minallah called for lawyers involved in the attack to be given exemplary punishment.
On February 8, hundreds of lawyers ransacked the high court, including the IHC CJ's chambers, during a protest over demolition of illegally built lawyers' chambers.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 17th, 2021.