ISLAMABAD, Oct 11: The Supreme Court has said it would not countenance the country’s bureaucracy hooking the small fish but leaving the big ones off the hook.
“The court will be impressed only if influential people are served notices for violating the purpose for which the farmlands had been leased out,” observed Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry when the city mandarins informed the court on Thursday that 70 lease holders had been issued notice for misusing their farmlands.
President Pervez Musharraf, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, PML chief Chaudhry Shujaat Husain and Senate Chairman Mohammadmian Soomro are among the big names who own farms either bought from a leaseholder or on original lease.
An official of the Capital Development Authority (CDA) gave the information to the three-member bench of the Supreme Court which is holding suo motu proceedings in a private complaint that many farms leased for growing vegetables and fruits, and raising poultry, for the citizens of Islamabad had been converted into spacious country estates by their powerful, or well-connected, owners.
CDA was ordered by the court to conduct a survey of the 499 farmlands it has leased out over several decades and report their misuse. It informed the court that it had surveyed nearly half of the farms, measuring minimum 2.5 acres, and issued notices to 70 leaseholders for using their farms as country house or other than intended purposes.
A CDA source told Dawn that the remaining 250 farms would be surveyed for misuse after Eid holidays.
Farms that have 80 per cent of their area under plantation would be considered meeting the lease terms. The terms don’t allow the owner to draw ground water for irrigation purposes but almost everyone does.
PPP Senator Enver Beg had complained to the Supreme Court that the powerful and influential had converted their farms into farmhouses.
At the last hearing the court had required the CDA chairman to cancel immediately the leases of the farmlands that were being utilised for purposes other than growing agri-products.
Six agro-farm schemes had been established in Zone 4 and a seventh one in Zone 1 in the late 1970s. The then rulers doled out most of them to favourites.
Entry of the powerful elite in Chak Shahzad Scheme changed the fortune of the area, as real estate price rose exponentially.
Over 400 agro-farms were leased out to individuals and institutions in eight suburban areas of Islamabad, including Chak Shahzad, Murree Road, Kahuta Road and Tarlai Kalan.
Besides the ruling elite, Senator Wasim Sajjad, former senator Dr Shahzad Waseem, opposition leaders Makhdoom Amin Fahim and Raja Nadir Pervez and several army generals and journalists figure in the long list of farm owners.
Use of the farms for purposes other than growing food and poultry for the Islamabad citizens caught the eye of the Supreme Court because it is also probing high prices of food items and their hoarding by traders.
On price hike, the Supreme Court observed that the people have the constitutional rights that their life and liberty should be protected. It was their right to get basic commodities and food items at reasonable prices.
About the role of police and local administration to check prices, the CJ observed that the court had no option but to seek their assistance as mere paperwork would not suffice.
The court expressed the hope that the drive against hoarders and profiteers in order to control prices of essential food items would continue and would be result-oriented.
Earlier, the apex court had directly ordered the inspector generals of police of the provinces and Islamabad to form teams of senior police officers to nab hoarders and prosecute them for creating scarcity.
Additional secretary ministry of industries submitted a report to the court outlining short- and long-term policies to control prices of wheat, flour, etc. The court expressed the confidence that the policies would be effective and implemented in letter and spirit.
Senior police and other provincial officers presented reports on their own efforts in this regard.
Chief Commissioner Hamid Ali Khan and Inspector General Police Islamabad Shahid Nadeem Baloch informed the court that prices of different commodities had registered decrease due to raids conducted at different places.
Home Secretary Punjab Khusro Pervez said Punjab was the only province which supplied wheat, flour and a bulk of sugar to other provinces and efforts were being taken to control the prices. He conceded that there was a shortage of flour but said the difficulty had been overcome.
The court also issued orders for measures to check smuggling of flour and wheat from Balochistan to Afghanistan.
