Supreme Court Noticed Irregularities In Land Acquired By Bahria Town All Over Pakistan
Supreme Court Noticed Irregularities In Land Acquired By Bahria Town All Over Pakistan: The Supreme Court (SC) on Friday came down hard on Bahria Town’s illegal procurement of land for its housing projects across the country, in each case declaring all such transfers null and void. The land acquired is against the provisions of COGLA 1912 [Colonization of Government Lands Act, 1912] and statement of conditions have no existence.
Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan authored judgments in each case, which were heard by a single three-member bench. He was accompanied by Justices Maqbool Baqar and Faisal Arab.
Bahria Town Barred From Selling Or Allotting Land
The apex court barred Bahria Town from selling or allotting land in the Bahria Town Karachi project after declaring that the allotment of land to the company by the Sindh government and a massive land exchanged with the Malir Development Authority (MDA) was done illegally.
NAB Instructed To Probe
The bench hearing the case further directed the National Accountability Bureau to file references against those responsible for illegally transferring and allotting land and to take action against them within 3 months.
Bahria Town Residents Need Not To Worry
The court also considered the interests of those people Bahria Town has already sold the land to.
Since a great deal of work has been done by the Bahria Town and a third-party interest has been created in favor of hundreds of allotees, the land could be granted to the Bahria Town afresh by the Board of Revenue under the provisions of COGLA 1912.
Bahria Town Will Be Scrutinize On Following Points
- “What would be the terms and conditions of grant, what would be the price of the land, whether it would be the one at which the Bahria Town sold the land to the people by and large, how much of government land and how much of the private land has been utilized by the Bahria Town, and what Bahria Town is entitled to receive in terms of money on account of development of the land are the questions to be determined by the implementation bench of this court.”
Till Investigations
“Bahria Town shall not sell any plot, built-up unit, apartment etc after the announcement of Supreme court ruling. Any allotment made after the announcement of this judgement shall be void,” the court ordered.
Defense Housing Authority (DHA) Schemes Will Be Probed Too
“We have been told that government land has also been allotted to DHA and many other societies on cheaper rates as compared to the rates in this case. If so, we would request the Honourable Chief Justice of Pakistan to take suo moto action in this behalf so that like be treated alike.”
Bahria Town Rawalpindi
Separately, the SC also held Bahria Town responsible for encroachment on forest land in the Takht Pari area near Islamabad.
NAB was also directed to look into who authorized the illegal allotments in the Takht Pari area and pursue them in an accountability court.
New Murree Development Scheme
New Murree Development Project/Scheme, had been roundly criticized by environment protection agencies for endangering the forests and land around Islamabad.
Supreme Court has instructed NAB to investigate the case and file references against all those who are found responsible for committing, aiding and abetting the crime at any level or in any form.”
For More Information & Videos Subscribe To Our YouTube Channel