LAHORE: Dismissing a review petition regarding withdrawal of state land allotted to citizens in Sahiwal, a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court on Wednesday warned the Punjab government of curtailing the powers of the chief minister to allot state land to selected citizens.

Headed by Justice Mian Saqib Nisar, the bench observed that the US president had no power to even allot a “khokha” (kiosk) to anyone but in Punjab precious state land had been allotted to individuals without any reason.

Justice Ijaz Ahmad Chaudhry and Justice Umar Ata Bandial were other members of the bench working at Lahore registry.

Muhammad Siddique of Sahiwal stated in his review petition that the then chief minister had allotted 223 acre land to citizens in 2004 on lease. However, he said, the revenue department cancelled the lease and withdrew the land to develop a government housing society. He said the government had not given a substitute land to the residents.

Dismisses review plea against land withdrawal

The petitioner said the high court and Supreme Court had dismissed petitions of the residents. He asked the bench to review the earlier decision as the department had no authority to withdraw the land allotted by the chief minister.

He also sought an order for the government to allot alternate land to the affected residents.

Justice Saqib took exception to the privilege of the chief minister to allot state land and said the court would evolve some principle against this power if any such matter came before it again.

With this observation, the bench dismissed the review petition.

Published in Dawn, July 23rd, 2015

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