ISLAMABAD: A bench of the Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered counsels of a litigant and the Capital Development Authority (CDA) to point out what actions the civic body has taken to check “non-conforming use” of 2,262 properties in the federal capital.

“Let it be known that howsoever mighty one be, the law is mightier,” said Justice Jawwad S. Khawaja, who heads the three-judge bench hearing the appeal of the firm Bridge Factor (Pvt) Ltd against the Islamabad High Court order, which rejected its challenge to a CDA notice that the firm violated the law by running its office in a residential building in Sector F-7/1 of Islamabad.

Bridge Factor’s counsel Ali Raza pleaded that his client had been discriminated against as the CDA did not touch such “high and mighty” as police chief of the city and the PML-N, the PTI and other political parties who similarly have offices in residential areas.

Indeed, the counsel found it “unfair” that the police, on CDA’s asking, removed a number of offices and restaurants for the offence when the police themselves were in violation of the same law.

“Law enforcers cannot be allowed to violate the very law which they are supposed to defend,” observed Justice Khawaja. Such violations undermine the credibility of institutions, he said.

Counsel Raza added that the city’s Inspector General of Police not only has his office in House 23, Street 31 Sector F-7/1 but has also barricaded the area around “for security”.

And although the CDA issued a notice to the motorway police way back in 2002 for running their office in a house in Sector F-8/3, the counsel told the bench it is still there.

Similarly, the political parties, including the PML-N and the PTI, having their secretariats in buildings located in residential areas, look untouchable to CDA, he added.

CDA’s lead counsel S. A. Rehman tried to explain by stating that unlike the deputy commissioner’s offices, which recently shifted to a complex especially built for them, the city police and the motorway police neither have their own buildings nor the money to build them.

Even the Islamabad High Court (IHC) occupies premises not built for it, counsel Rehman noted.

This explanation led Justice Khawaja to deplore the conditions in the capital city of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan where there is no public transport right for the common man from the Lahore motorway to the Judges Enclave because affluent people live in these areas who own vehicles.

Even rickshaws are banned from the city as if Islamabad was meant for the privileged class only where the poor have no say, bemoaned Justice Khawaja. It was class discrimination, according to him.

There used to be clear, sparkling streams in the city, but all of them have been polluted, remarked his brother judge Justice Ejaz Afzal. Trumpets are blown that Islamabad is “the most protected city”, he noted, dismissing the claim as “mere tall talk”.

Earlier, CDA counsel S. A. Rehman told the bench that a complaint cell that opened on March 15 has received nine complaints of non-conforming use of property from the citizens.

Roads and footpaths blocked have been removed and the Foreign Office is in contact with the embassies located in residential areas for the removal of the blockades erected for their safety.

The case will be taken up again in the first week of April.

Published in Dawn, March 18th, 2015

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