Illegal occupation: Court gives police chief a week to vacate all G-6 flats

IGP assures court he will help housing ministry vacate them.

ISLAMABAD:

The Inspector General of the Islamabad Police (IGP) assured the Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Wednesday that all flats in Sector G-6 illegally occupied by the Islamabad police will be vacated.

IGP Bani Amin Khan appeared before IHC Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui in a case centred on the police’s illegal occupation of government flats since 2007. On March 18, Housing Ministry Estate Officer Falak Sher informed the court that some police officers were reluctant to vacate the flats, after which Justice Siddiqui summoned the IGP in person and asked him for an explanation.

On Wednesday, Khan assured the court that he would help the estate officer to get the flats vacated. After his assurance, the court directed him to vacate all flats within one week and adjourned the case till March 29.



The case was originally filed by Ghazanfar Shah, a government employee who sought possession of the flat allotted to him in Sector G-6. His flat is currently being occupied by police constable Ashraf. The court has already sought complete details of contenders from the estate office. Earlier, Advocate Chaudhry Afrasiab argued that police personnel have not occupied the flats, rather they were given permission to use them by the interior ministry, after the Lal Masjid operation in 2007.

Police personnel have occupied over 210 flats in G-6, which were constructed by the CDA in 1997 at a cost of Rs250 million.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 21^st, 2013.