Illegal allotments: SC issues contempt notices to ex-housing minister, HEC official

The officer was allotted an already-occupied flat at the minister’s behest.

ISLAMABAD:

The Supreme Court on Monday issued notice to a former junior minister for housing for contempt and allocating a flat to a government servant in violation of rules.

A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry did not accept an unconditional apology tendered by Malik Nauman Langrial, former state minister for housing and works, and expressed their annoyance over the way he allotted the flat in G-6/2 when the case was pending in the court.

The members of the bench — Justice Gulzar Ahmed and Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed — also issued a contempt of court notice to Faisal Butta — a Higher Education Commission (HEC) employee to whom the flat was allotted on Langrial’s recommendation — before adjourning the hearing till April 8.

Through his lawyer Hafiz SA Rehman, the former minister said, “I tender my apology for meddling with court proceedings as I was not in knowledge of the pending litigation. The applicant, Faisal Butt, concealed the facts from me while requesting the allocation of government accommodation”.

However, the chief justice said, “You should have consulted the secretary or any other official before recommending the allocation of the flat already allocated to Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) employee Muhammad Afsar…his case was pending in the SC.

“Ministers should not act like kings. Before issuing such orders, they should go through the relevant rules of business. Under the law, the minister is not authorised to allocate residences,” the CJ remarked.

Housing Secretary Asif Hayat informed the bench that Estate Officer (EO) Ayub Jan, who forced an assistant EO to issue the allotment letter on the recommendation of the former minister, was already in FIA custody facing a criminal case.

Jan was booked by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on the EO’s complaint for allegedly issuing fake allotment letters, the secretary added.

To the surprise of the bench, Housing and Works Joint Secretary Amina Imran said she had learnt that a computer in the Estate Office was being used to prepare fake allotment letters to occupy housing units in the federal capital. The court had earlier directed her to collect and submit data on all unauthorised allotments to the court. A four-member committee was formed on the direction of the court.

According to the committee report, of the 1,392 government residences in Sector I-9 alone, 94 have been either occupied by unauthorised persons or sub-let by the allottees, the joint secretary said.

She said that after the matter was taken up by the apex court, 185 unlawful allotments had been unearthed and more cases would be detected.

Imran said the records for 18,000 government residences were destroyed during the Lal Masjid operation in 2007.

The bench expressed alarm over the slackness of the Estate Office for failing to initiate the reconstruction of data regarding the residences.

After giving two weeks to the department for collecting the complete data of unauthorised allotments, the bench adjourned till April 8.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 26^th, 2013.