Pakistan

Military encroachment: Authorities to compensate ISI-occupied land

Military Estate Office to pay Rs49.335 million to Zahoor and Maqsood Abbasi.

Our Correspondent March 02, 2012

RAWALPINDI:

Military authorities informed a bench of the court on Thursday that they were ready to compensate two brothers for their land that has been occupied by a top intelligence agency near the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium. The land was under occupation by the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).

Justice Rauf Ahmed Sheikh of the Lahore High Court (LHC) Rawalpindi bench disposed of the petition filed by Zahoor Abbasi and Maqsood Abbasi after the Military Estate Office (MEO) agreed to pay Rs49.335 million to the two brothers.

On February 16th, Justice Sheikh had directed the secretary of the Ministry of Defence to either pay compensation to the two brothers or return 3.6 kanal of land to them.

Presently a multi-story plaza Panorama Center exists at the land being operated by ISI.

Explaining the background of the case, Advocate Ibadur Rehman Lodhi told The Express Tribune that military authorities acquired the land near the cricket stadium in the early 1980’s for defence purposes and in the process encroached upon the land of the two brothers.

He said the high court gave a verdict in favour of his clients on their petition they had filed in 1999. The MEO filed an appeal with the Supreme Court (SC) against the LHC decision but the apex court dismissed the appeal and upheld the high court verdict in 2002. The military authorities filed a review petition that was also dismissed by the apex court in 2004. Following the SC decision, the Abbasi brothers filed a petition with the LHC Pindi Bench in 2004 for the implementation of the SC order.

On the last hearing, the MEO standing counsel informed the court that the authorities had paid an amount of Rs160 million to the land acquisition collector and a sum of Rs130 million had been disbursed among the affected owners. He said after the disbursement of the money, the petitioners had raised the issue.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 2^nd, 2012.