MNAs approach court against eviction notice

ISLAMABAD:

Two PTI MNAs have approached the Islamabad High Court against their eviction from official residences at Parliament Lodges.

Islamabad High Court Chief Justice Athar Minallah will hear the case on Friday (today). PTI MNA Shaukat Ali Bhatti from Hafizabad and Amir Sultan from Jhang have challenged the eviction notice served to them. The secretary National Assembly and the CDA chairman have been made parties in the petition. The petition seeks annulment of the CDA's eviction notice.

According to the rules, the petitioners have contended that they should be ordered to stay as long as they were eligible to stay maintaining further that they were elected members of the National Assembly. The petition contends that the CDA issued a notice to vacate the official residences without giving any reason. Until new elections were held, the National Assembly was functional and the MNAs can have accommodation for their families and official work.

 They said that CDA attempted forced eviction and threw their household items and some of which were missing. The CDA issued illegal notices without the necessary legal formalities, the petition maintained, adding that the concerned MNAs were from remote areas and forced retrieval of their official residences is an attempt to stop the official function of the assembly.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, June 24^th, 2022.