IHC roundup: PM’s taskforce chief barred from entering CDA premises
The chairperson of the Prime Minister’s Task Force on Islamabad was restrained from acting in that capacity till May 21 by the Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Monday. Faisal Sakhi Butt was told by IHC Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui that he may not enter the offices of the Capital Development Authority (CDA) for any work in his role as taskforce chairman. He also directed CDA officials from not interacting with or taking any orders from Butt.
Justice Siddiqui made it clear that “during this period, no CDA employees shall visit the office of Fasial Sakhi Butt and he will also not enter the premises of CDA as taskforce chairman”.
During the course of hearing, the counsel for Butt, Advocate Munir Paracha, failed to submit his reply to a question asked by the bench in the previous hearing. The court had asked “under what law is Butt exercising control over the civic body?”. Paracha requested the court to give him time to submit a written response to the question, which the court agreed to, before restraining Butt until the next court date, when the response is due for submission.
During the previous hearing, the court had summoned Butt while hearing a petition filed by a Kashmiri migrant regarding land allotment. Counsel for the petitioner, Advocate Niazullah Niazi, informed the court that while Butt is not the CDA chairman, it is he who is actually running the civic body.
The petition is based on the non-provision of compensation to Niazi’s client for 39 kanals.
Issue petrol pump NOC in two days
Meanwhile, Justice Noorul Haq Qureshi directed the CDA to produce a No Objection Certificate (NOC) for Khurram Hashmi, who had filed a contempt petition against the civic agency’s bosses for failing to issue the document to him.
During the previous hearing, the court had issued arrest warrants for CDA Chairman Engineer Farkhand Iqbal and Deputy Director Arshad Chohan, while hearing a contempt of court application filed by the owner of a privately-owned petrol filling station against the authority.
The petitioner’s counsel had earlier told the court that after fulfilling all NOC requirements and a court ruling in it’s favour, CDA was still refusing to issue an NOC to SMG Petroleum.
He had further said his client was building a petrol filling station on Golra Road, which is controlled by the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) administration and not by the CDA. “Instead, the authority’s officials imposed a number of conditions on my client,” he said.
After hearing arguments from both sides on February 15, the court had directed the CDA to issue an NOC to the petitioner within 15 days.
During the course of hearing, Director-General Planning Ghulam Sarwar Sindhu and Deputy Director Arshad Chohan appeared before the court and requested more time to submit their replies, but court turned down the request and directed them to produce the NOC in court on May 16.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 15th, 2012.
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