Barrister Iftikhar Ahmed

17th Jan, 2022. 12:48 pm

Whammy by honourable courts

Suddenly we are dealt with a double whammy! Islamabad High Court drops a sledgehammer of a judgement on Navy Golf Club, Naval Yacht Club and Naval Farms as illegally acquired land!

Likewise, Higher Education Commission struck off close to a hundred colleges, universities and other institutions as unauthorised, illegal and without lawful authority!

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The Navy, being a sea force, never felt fettered on the water and somehow felt the same since being put on land in Islamabad. Bahria Town of Malik Riaz also took birth in the lap of the Pakistan Navy. Even the permission to use the name Bahria by Malik Riaz was also granted by the Navy.

Justice Athar Minallah authored the landmark 45-page judgement which in a long-deliberated case questioned the setting up of a Yacht Club on the bank of Rawal Lake. There was never permission sought for activities of such kind from the Capital Development Authority, the civic body that runs the capital.

The Naval Farms always looked attractive to me while passing by on my way to a friend’s farm on Simly Dam Road. The elitism acquired by farmhouse living was originally the making of the CDA itself, when decades ago it allotted 20 acre farmland to non-farmers on the flimsy pretext of growing agricultural produce to supply to Islamabad city. The “poor” farmers were permitted to build a shelter for themselves. Only the richest of the capital live in these palatial houses with sprawling lawns, hosting grand parties like the recently celebrated wedding of Nawaz Sharif’s grandson.

Next to be axed by IHC was my regular haunt and most loved place in Islamabad, the Margalla Greens Golf Club a.k.a Naval Golf Club – which I always rated as the best golf club in the country. Meandering uphill and downhill 18 holes with numerous tee offs from the Margalla mountain, overlooking the breath-taking views of Islamabad city with its grand landmark of Faisal Mosque.

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The Navy made a good job of it as a club, but alas it is all illegal, unauthorised and without jurisdiction! What a pity all over! I played my last 9 holes while the Chief Justice was in the process of calling bogies. No more crispy pakoras and weekend brunch on the 19th hole any more. Margalla mountain is to Islamabad what the Uetliberg is to Zurich.

Like military actions, the forces need to plan their civil actions too with equal diligence and precision. The defence of the respondents in this case was that most of Margalla hills was granted to military lands department in 1912. They forgot about subsequent laws when Islamabad got declared as the new capital of Pakistan, when a master plan of CDA superseded all other allotments.

Monal Restaurant atop Margalla hills, a must-visit while in Islamabad, is ordered by the same judgement to be razed to the ground as an encroachment in the Margalla National Park. The restaurant raked in money on weekends and vacations like nobody’s business. Previously, Monal’s allotment and business was questioned, but strangely ended up as a payment of rent issue rather than legality of its existence.

A similar fate was met by a CDA purpose-built building of a second elitist club called Metropolitan Club, right inside the largest park of Islamabad.

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The trouble is that the powerful and the mighty want to grab the best of this beautiful city by not minding the law. National parks anywhere in the world are precious assets of any state and their preservation is the cardinal duty of each government.

While writing this piece, I read about the Supreme Court ordering the cancellation of Gutter Bagheecha allotments in Karachi as illegal. Bahria Town Karachi’s illegality produces the massive slap of over 500 billion rupees fine, the largest amount ever ordered to be paid by a party in a case. The payment of this amount by Malik Riaz, in a spinning way, exposed his UK bank accounts producing a ban on his and his son’s visit visa to the UK.

The recent approach by courts in ordering the bulldozers on encroachments, usurpation of government lands and illegal structures is a sad commentary on the way our corrupt civic bodies, the inefficient and poodles of the powerful are running our cities.

Why does it have to be a judge bringing order, legality and constantly bringing the rule of law into action? Why aren’t the politicians themselves law-abiding when they flout merit like a rag doll? The corruption written large on the faces of officials of these authorities smacks of collusion with the politicians. Our shameful stories of money laundering scams are a tell-tale.

One prayer from a common man should be added to the petitions in such cases: Further it is prayed that this Honorable Court not dispose of this case until all the perpetrators are finally dealt with by law and their sentences are made public by this honourable court’s order.

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The writer is a practicing lawyer

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