Court orders razing of illegally constructed lawyers’ chambers
Encroachments on any state land and any construction thereon is violation of the law, rules Islamabad High Court’s larger bench; Supreme Court asked to review its Feb.11 order on Justice Isa
The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Tuesday ordered demolition of illegally constructed chambers of lawyers on the premises of district courts in Islamabad’s F-8 Markaz.
An IHC larger bench, headed by Chief Justice Athar Minallah, ruled: “The encroachments on any state land and any construction thereon in violation of the Ordinance of 1960 and the rules or regulations made there under are illegal, void and liable to be removed forthwith.”
“Since a small fraction of the total number of members of the Islamabad District Bar are beneficiaries of the illegal construction of chambers, therefore, we are confident that as a gesture towards the actual stakeholders i.e. the general public, the members of the Bar will clear the illegal construction and restore the playground for public use,” read a 30-page order issued by the bench.
The court ordered that in case the playground is not restored by or before March 28, then the federal government and the Capital Development Authority will restore the playground for public use. The bench directed the government to make “arrangements for holding a football tournament amongst students of public schools on the Pakistan Day i.e. March, to give tribute to the greatest lawyer of the sub-continent and founder of the nation Quaid-e-azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah.”
The court directed the Islamabad District Bar to submit its proposed plan to the Capital Development Authority (CDA) for consideration and approval in relation to lawyers’ plot. Moreover, the IHC bench directed the government to commence and complete the construction of the state of the art complex of district courts without unnecessary delay.
In a separate development, Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) vice chairman Khush Dil Khan has urged the Supreme Court to review its Feb.11 order of barring Justice Qazi Faez Isa from hearing cases concerning Prime Minister Imran Khan.
It is in the larger interest of the smooth functioning of the Supreme Court and for safeguarding the independence of its judges for discharging their constitutional duties to dispense justice that the order should be reviewed, said the vice chairman in a statement.
In view of the importance and significance of the mater, Khan also proposed convening a PBC meeting at an early date to discuss the situation.
On Feb.11 a five-judge Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed had issued an order requiring Justice Isa not to hear maters involving the premier, considering that he had already filed a petition against the prime minister in his personal capacity.
The directions were issued during the hearing of the proposed plan to distribute Rs500 million uplit funds among the Pakistan Tehrik-e-insaf (PTI) legislators ater which the Supreme Court order came stating to uphold the principle of un-biasness and impartiality, it would be in the interest of justice that Justice Isa should not hear maters involving the prime minister. A statement on behalf of the prime minister, however, had dubbed the media reports as incorrect.
Later on Feb.12, Justice Isa wrote a letter to the Supreme Court’s registrar questioning why the Feb.11 order was not shared with him before releasing it to the media and dubbed the entire event as shocking. In a one-page leter Justice Isa had also inquired why the order/ judgement was not sent to him and why the settled practice of sending it to the next senior judge was not followed.
The copies of the leter were also dispatched to Chief Justice of Pakistan Gulzar Ahmed and all the judges of the Supreme Court.
Justice Isa also questioned why was the order released to the media before he read it, let alone had the opportunity to sign it in agreement/ disagreement and who ordered its release to the media. Justice Isa also asked the SC’S registrar to provide him the case file so that he could finally read the order/judgement.
Khan expressed concern over barring Justice Isa from taking up cases against the prime minister without consulting the judge himself and even without circulating the same to him for his views and signatures and subsequently, not making him part of any bench of the Supreme Court for hearing court cases and instead confining him to do only chamber work.