The Supreme Court (SC) will take up a petition on Tuesday against the Islamabad High Court’s (IHC) restraining orders regarding allotment of plots to judges, bureaucrats and government employees in the capital’s F-14 and 15 sectors through balloting.
The IHC on September 13 suspended the allotment of 4,723 plots in Islamabad’s two new sectors, including 1,704 plots, measuring one kanal each, allotted to senior bureaucrats and top judges, by a federal government housing authority in the month of August.
The court noted that the beneficiaries of balloting in F-14 and F15 sectors also included those who have been convicted or dismissed from service on charges of corruption or misconduct.
A three-judge special bench led by Justice Umar Ata Bandial will hear two petitions filed by the Federal Government Employees Housing Authority (FGEHA) against the high court’s August 20, 2021, and September 13, 2021, orders.
The FGEHA, through Advocate Akram Sheikh, requested the apex court to restrain the IHC from passing orders of similar nature against the petitioner.
“The FGEHA is a public institution working for the mission of providing shelter to federal government employees and retirees which has been made dysfunctional and scandalised in media by the vested interests,” the petition said.
It contended that the IHC orders have created a strong sense of concern among the members of FGEHA schemes and allottees throughout Islamabad and other capital cities.
“Therefore, it is imperative that the adjudication of this matter of great public importance be in line with constitutional scheme of adjudication and without any influence from the parties involved so that the FGEHA may continue its work uninterrupted and unhampered for the benefit of its members,” it added.
The FGEHA objected that a high court could not exercise suo motu jurisdiction under Article 199 of the Constitution of Pakistan, saying that only on the application of an aggrieved party or on the application of any person can Article 199 be invoked.
“The high court while exercising jurisdiction under Article 199 of the Constitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan 1973 cannot travel beyond the grievance of an aggrieved party or a person,” the petitioner contended.
“If a high court while exercising the jurisdiction under Article 199 of the Constitution travels beyond the grievance of an aggrieved party or a person, it amounts to exercise of suo motu jurisdiction which a high court does not have,” the petition added.
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It requested the apex court to set aside the IHC’s August 20 and September 13 orders.
It is already being reported that Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Gulzar Ahmed, senior puisne judge and other judges of the SC, provincial high courts and bureaucrats in BS-20 to BS-22 were allotted 1,704 plots of one kanal each in Sectors F-14 and F-15 on Aug 17.
The FGEHA also allotted 1,690 plots, measuring 14 marlas each, to officers in BS-18 and BS-19; 1,329 plots, measuring 10 marlas each, to those in BS-16 and BS-17.
Around 50 superior courts judges, including CJP Gulzar, and two former chief justices, Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry and Anwar Zaheer Jamali, were allotted plots through balloting on August 17, 2021.
Justice Faisal Arab, Justice Manzoor Ahmed Malik, Justice Iqbal Hameedur Rehman, Justice Mazhar Alam Khan Miankhel, Justice Sardar Tariq Masood, Justice Ijazul Ahsan and Justice Maqbool Baqir were allotted two plots of one kanal each in the new sectors.
Also, one-kanal plots were allotted to Justice Umar Ata Bandial, Justice Amir Hani Muslim, Justice Riaz Ahmed Khan, Justice Abdul Latif Khan, Justice Malik Manzoor Hussain, Justice Sheikh Najamul Hassan, Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan, Justice Jalaluddin, Justice Asadullah Khan, Justice Irshad Qaiser, Justice Mohammad Daud Khan, Justice Yar Mohammad, Justice Zaheer Ahmed Shahwani, Justice Nisar Hussain Khan, Justice Noorul Haq N Qureshi, Justice Sahib Khan, Justice Abdul Sami Khan, Justice Mohammad Younas Khan, Justice Mushir Alam, Justice Ali Akbar Qureshi, Justice Ashraf Jahan, Justice Qazi Mohammad Amin Ahmed, Justice Mohammad Ghazanfar Khan, Justice Ikramullah, Justice Aminuddin Khan, Justice Lal Jan Khattak, Justice Qaiser Rashid Khan, Justice Ishaq Khan, Justice Azam Khan, Justice Said Maroof Khan, Justice Khilji Arif Hussain, Justice Mehmood Akhtar Shahid Siddiqui, Justice Sarmad Jalal Usmani, Justice Ijaz Ahmed Chaudhry, Justice Mohammad Athar Saeed, Justice Dost Mohammad Khan, Justice Sajjad Ali Shah and Justice Syed Zahid Hussain.
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