August 01, 2007	Wednesday	Rajab 16, 1428

ISLAMABAD, July 31: Tough time awaits the civic bodies of Islamabad and Rawalpindi in the Supreme Court which has asked them to explain the establishment of international fast food outlets in two public parks.

A two-member Supreme Court bench on Tuesday directed the counsels for Capital Development Authority (CDA) and Rawalpindi Development Authority (RDA) to submit concise statements about the establishment of McDonald outlets in F-9 Park Islamabad and Jinnah Park Rawalpindi.

Justice Rana Bhagwandas and Justice Faqir Muhammad Khokhar took up the case on the basis of an application by Senator Saadia Abbasi and press reports about the two outlets.

Senator Saadia submitted to the court that the allotment of land by the CDA to McDonald in F-9 Park conflicted with CDA’s rules and the Supreme Court judgment in Jubilee Park case.

CDA’s counsel Mian Allah Nawaz submitted a report but the court directed him to submit a concise statement at the next hearing.

Munir Paracha, representing the McDonald group, requested the bench to direct the parties to provide him the case material. The bench accepted his request and issued necessary direction to the petitioners.

Ahmer Bilal Sufi, representing entrepreneur Shah Sharabeel whose attempt to convert Jubilee Park into a commercial mini golf course was aborted by the court last year, sought permission to file a new petition before the court under Article 184(3) of the Constitution. The bench granted the permission.

A source in the RDA told Dawn that McDonald was given a vast area in Jinnah Park under an agreement signed between 10 Corps and the fast food franchise holders.

Although located in Rawalpindi, the park originally belonged to CDA. Since the CDA did not want to develop it, the park became the property of RDA which contracted out its development to 10 Corps. Under the contract the park will be handed over to the RDA after three years, the source said.

As for the CDA, it leased out 6,000 square yards in F-9 Park to the McDonald franchise holder Sisa Food, undeterred by the Supreme Court verdict that invalidated the lease it had granted for a mini golf club in the Jubilee Park.

“Though the cost of the land given to the firm (Sisa Food) is estimated to be Rs5 billion, it has been provided on 20-year lease for Rs317,000 per month,” one source said.

“There is a clear cut verdict of the Supreme Court in the mini golf club case that ‘no commercial activity can be done at public parks’. Therefore establishing the restaurant on the park’s land was a contempt of the court,” a member of the Senior Citizens Committee, Admiral (retd) Ahmed Tasleem, said.

Last year the CDA informed the committee that the land of the park was being given for the restaurant on the desire of Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, he said. “We wrote letters to the prime minister warning him not to get himself involved in the scam.”

Admiral (retired) Tasleem described the case of McDonald outlets in public parks as “one of the test cases” for Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry since his restoration.