‘Conflict of interest’

IHC declare govt's failure to make good on the promise a violation of fundamental rights of the affected landowners

The Islamabad High Court judgment to suspend the allotment of plots of land to judicial officers of the Islamabad Capital Territory has once again established that bureaucracy sometimes acts in strange ways and the judiciary has to take corrective measures. IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah based his decision on conflict of interest that such allotments would give rise to in this case. In his judgment, the honourable chief justice said, “All judges of the district judiciary who are likely to hear cases of the affected landowners have been allotted plots at a price lower than the market rate and this is a conflict of interest.”

Purported owners of the land in question had filed a petition challenging the allotments of plots in two sectors of Islamabad. They claimed that the Federal Government Employees Housing Foundation (FGEHS) had made a commitment that the landowners would be allotted plots, but this was not done. The petitioner had also mentioned the possibility of conflict of interest arising because cases involving the relevant government organisation were pending in courts.

The IHC declared the failure to make good on the promise a violation of the fundamental rights of the affected landowners, and expressed astonishment at the federal government’s policy of allotting plots even to judicial officers rendered ineligible due to serious reasons. The court told the housing secretary to explain the criteria for distribution of state land among beneficiaries. It also stopped the FGEHS from evicting the natives from their lands, and took the relevant authorities to task for their ham-handed handling of land allotments by ignoring the needs of those whose lands had been acquired.

Justice Minallah has referred the case to a larger bench of the Supreme Court and asked the attorney general to be present during the hearing of the case at the apex court.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, August 23^rd, 2021.

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