Summons Maroof Afzal to explain why no action taken against commercial ventures in residential areas, road blocks. PHOTO: AFP
The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed the Capital Development Authority (CDA) to submit response regarding widespread road blocks.
The two-judge bench, headed by Justice Jawwad S Khawaja, asked CDA Chief Maroof Afzal to appear today to submit a response.
The bench was hearing a suo motu case on the blockage of roads by foreign missions and private businesses, as well as official agencies, in the city.
The bench noted that the case has been ongoing for some time but it appears that CDA is either disinclined or otherwise submitting to the unlawful pressure of various parties or as a consequence not doing its job of removing the encroachments.
The court was informed that there are 216 blockades on public ways.
During the hearing, the bench wanted to direct the CDA to remove the encroachment by today (Wednesday).
However, the CDA counsel informed the bench that it would not be possible. The court therefore stated “Let the CDA chairman come tomorrow (Wednesday) and inform us why such encroachments have not been removed.”
During the hearing, the bench asked CDA whether the intelligence agencies are above the law, referring to the fact that they too have blocked many roads in front of their offices.
CDA counsel Hafiz S A Rehman, while submitting a report, told the bench 1,907 employees of grade-1 to grade-5 have been allotted residences in the capital. To this, Justice Khawaja observed that the court wants to ascertain whether Islamabad is a city for the rich or low-paid folk also reside in it.
The hearing was then adjourned till Wednesday (today).
Earlier, CDA had submitted a 220-page report to the Supreme Court detailing residential units being used for commercial purposes along with foreign missions and offices of agencies that have encroached on public space in the garb of security.
The CDA has admitted that “no approval of any kind has been sought before some 216 roads, streets and footpaths in Islamabad were closed for the general public under the guise of security”. The apex court was also informed that the civic body has taken up the issue of embassies with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
During the previous hearing on December 17, the apex court had directed the CDA to hold a fresh survey to remove discrepancies in its earlier report on the issue.
The new report had counted 2,262 cases of non-conforming use of residential units.
The court was also informed that the authority had recently removed non-conforming use from some 567 properties, while 1,015 cases are under trial at the District Commissioner’s office and 149 are in different courts.
Meanwhile, 1,695 residential units are still under non-conforming use.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 4th, 2015.
COMMENTS
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ