RAWALPINDI, Oct 23: The Lahore High Court’s Rawalpindi bench on Tuesday issued stay orders against any type of construction and change in the nature of a 2,388 kanal land near Morgah by the army housing directorate. The land was originally allocated to the Revenue Employees Cooperative Housing Society (RECHS).

Justice Abdul Shakoor Paracha of the LHC said the status quo should be maintained and no construction be made at the site till an acceptable solution to the dispute.

Ten members of the defunct RECHS in their petition through Advocate Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui maintained that in 1989 the land was reserved for the society registered with the Rawalpindi Development Authority (RDA). They said the land could not be developed due to official and bureaucratic hurdles and involvement of the land mafia.

Later in 2005, they alleged, the administrator of the housing society in league with the provincial secretary cooperatives department and officials of the revenue department amalgamated the society with the Bahria Town, a private housing firm, despite alarms raised by members of the society.

“At first, the chief executive officer (CEO) of Bahria Town promised to develop the land and give the plots to the members and received the development charges from them. However, later he not only backed out of his promise but also transferred the land to the Defence Housing Authority (DHA),” they said.

The petitioners stated that they were taken aback when they came to know that the army housing directorate had started developing the land for Askari XIV without their information. “It dawned upon us that the CEO of Bahria Town had further sold the land to the army housing directorate.”

The petitioners prayed the court to stop the army housing directorate from changing the nature of the land and order the secretary cooperatives to take control of the land to protect the rights of the affected people.

The counsel for the Bahria Town told the court that his client had agreed to settle the dispute through a mediator/referee and presented three names to the petitioner. They were former chief justice of Pakistan Irshad Hassan Khan, Fazal Mehmood, a former high court judge and former law secretary Mansoor Ahmed. However, he said, the 10 petitioners rejected the proposal.

On Tuesday, the petitioners proposed the names of former Federal Shariat Court judge Riazuddin Khan and ex-high court judge Abdul Karim Kundi for mediation. However, the respondents’ counsel sought time to consider the names. On this, the court adjourned the hearing till November 7.