ISLAMABAD: A petitioner who is usually seen in the Supreme Court (SC) in connection with hearings of the missing persons’ cases, on Friday, entered an application asking the court to expedite his challenge to the ambitious expansion of the US embassy in Islamabad.

The original petition was filed in May 2012 by Advocate Tariq Asad on behalf of retired Lt-Col Inamul Rahiem. In it, the petitioner challenges what he calls the “(construction) of a mini city… and secret underground bunkers” in the heart of the capital. But the petition was returned by the SC office with the objection that the petitioner had failed to establish a breach of citizens’ fundamental rights and that he had no locus standi (legal standing) to pursue the matter in court.

Subsequently, Rahiem filed an appeal against the registrar office’s decision, which is still pending. On Friday, though, he entered a fresh application, seeking the swift hearing of his earlier appeal. If accepted, the SC office will place the appeal before a single judge of the Supreme Court, who will decide whether or not to fix the appeal petition before a bench of the court for hearing.

In the original petition, Rahiem asked for the constitution of a high-level commission consisting of retired Supreme Court and high court judges, senior lawyers, civil engineers and politicians of good repute, to visit the construction site and submit a detailed report.

The CDA has already approved the embassy’s construction plan to build a basement and a new seven-storey office building measuring 331,424 square feet with underground bunkers, which the petitioner maintains, puts it in close proximity to sensitive installations, such as Kahuta.

The approval for the expansion plan of the US embassy, the petitioner alleged, threatened the national security and sovereignty of Pakistan. Citing media reports, the petition also alleges that construction began on the embassy’s existing land, but an additional plot was also acquired in the Diplomatic Enclave, without paying the nearly Rs1.7 billion that is the cost of that land.

This is not the first time such concerns have been voiced against construction inside the embassy’s premises.

On September 13, 2013, the Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) expressed reservations over the expansion of the US embassy in a resolution.

In his statement, former PBC Vice Chairman Syed Qalbe Hassan had alleged that the embassy had exerted undue pressure on the CDA to get a site plan approved in violation of the law and building rules.

After the expansion, the building will have the capacity to accommodate more than 5,000 American personnel in close proximity to the Red Zone, which houses the foreign ministry, the PM Secretariat, the Presidency and all other important embassies of different countries, the statement had said.