SAPMs, judges, and others distributed plots in new sectors of Islamabad

SAPMs, judges, and others distributed plots in new sectors of Islamabad. According to a list posted on the Federal Government Employees Housing Authority (FGEHA) website after the ballot on Tuesday, two aides to the prime minister, judges of the superior judiciary, and top bureaucrats are among the successful applicants for allocation of residential plots in F-14 and F-15 sectors of Islamabad.

Federal Housing Minister Tariq Bashir Cheema chaired the meeting. Over 4,500 applications were chosen as winners.

According to the list, the Chief Justice of Pakistan, Gulzar Ahmed, has been assigned a plot in Sector F-15/3.

The Prime Minister’s Special Assistant on Finance (SAPM), Dr. Waqar Masood Khan, was given a plot in Sector F-15/4. In contrast, the SAPM on Establishment, Dr. Shahzad Arbab, was given a property in Sector F-14/2. Before they retired from government work, they had both applied for plots.

Judges of the superior and subordinate judiciaries and a few journalists have been assigned to Category I — plots measuring one kanal.

Former Chief Justices Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry and Anwar Zaheer Jamali are among the recipients. Justice Ashraaf Jahan of the Sindh High Court (SHC), the latter’s wife, was also among the victorious applicants.

The list included eight current Supreme Court judges. They have Justices Umar Ata Bandial, Qazi Mohammad Amin Ahmed, Maqbool Baqir, Mazhar Alam Khan Miankhel, Sardar Tariq Masood, Aminud Din Khan, Justice Ijazul Hassan, and Sajjad Ali Shah.

They found seven retiring Supreme Court justices to be successful. Plots have also been assigned to Justices Ejaz Afzal Khan, Manzoor Ahmed Malik, Amir Hani Muslim, Iqbal Hameed ur Rehman, Rana Mohammad Shamim, Sheikh Najam ul Hassan, and Riaz Ahmed Khan.

Ghalib Bandesha and Bashir Memon, two former directors general of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), Tahir Alam, Orya Maqbool Jan, Secretary to Cabinet Division Ahmed Nawaz Sukhera, and several other federal secretaries and bureaucrats working in BS-22 and 21 are among the allottees.

On the list are six district and sessions judges from Islamabad. Kamran Basharat Mufti, Raja Jawad Abbas Hassan, Mohammad Bashir, Tahir Mehmood, Wajid Ali, and Shahrukh Arjumand are the names of the individuals.

Nine more district and session judges were found to be qualified. Abida Sajjad, Rakhshanda Shaheen, Atta Rabbani, Raja Asif Mehmood, Jahangir Awan, Iram Niazi, Faizan Haider, Mohammad Adnan, and Zeba Chaudhry are the names of the women.

While justices from all of Pakistan’s provincial high courts were given plots in F-14 and F-15, no judges from the Islamabad High Court were among those who applied.

IHC’s decision

In his October 2017 judgment, Chief Justice Athar Minallah of the Islamabad High Court sustained identical petitions against property acquisition for the two sectors.

“The entire machinery involved in land acquisition through the police force, from the chief commissioner to the land acquisition collector, has a financial interest in the foundation – to gain a plot for a lesser price than it would fetch in a transparent sale,” Justice Minallah noted.

Those who benefit from both sectors include “serving or retired officers and employees of federal ministries, divisions, attached departments… judges of the superior courts, i.e., the honorable Supreme Court, all high courts, Azad Jammu and Kashmir Supreme Court, Chief Court and Supreme Appellate Court of Gilgit-Baltistan, as well as the Federal Shariat Court.”

The allotment of plots to judges of district courts of Islamabad was criticized in the judgment, which stated that these judges, who “would ultimately hear and decide references of the affectees under section 18 of the Acquisition Act, have either already availed the benefit or have applied to the foundation for plots, thus… having a personal financial interest in the cases before them,” had “either already availed the benefit or have applied to the foundation for plots, thus… having a personal financial interest

The Supreme Court had overturned the IHC decision.

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