ISLAMABAD: As many as 18 people filed a petition in the Islamabad High Court (IHC) against the termination of the lease of the under-construction 28 storey building that will house residential apartments and the five-star Grand Hyatt Hotel.

The petitioners include Saad Noman, the son of former Chief of Naval Staff Noman Bashir and Hamza Suleman who is the son of former secretary foreign office Suleman Bashir. Noman and Suleman Bashir are brothers.

Sheikh Amir Waheed, the brother of the managing director of Pakistan Baitul Mal Abid Waheed, is also one of the petitioners.


18 petitioners who bought apartments in Grand Hyatt maintain CDA terminated lease without hearing them


Through their counsel Khawaja Haris Ahmed, the petitioners argued before the court that they were not heard and that the Capital Development Apartment (CDA) had terminated the lease of the land on which the apartments they had paid for were to be built without giving them the opportunity of defence.

Those who were allotted residential apartments in the under construction twin towers also include a former chief justice, federal ministers and politicians.

After the preliminary hearing of the petition, IHC Justice Athar Minallah directed the CDA to submit a detailed reply and adjourned the hearing till September 7.

BNP, the firm constructing the high rise building has also challenged CDA’s decision of July 29 to terminate the 99-year lease for the land due to violations of CDA bylaws and the rescheduling of outstanding dues.

The civic agency had also sealed the site for the hotel a month earlier for various building and layout plan violations.

In a meeting of its board on July 29, the CDA had also decided on taking appropriate action against those officials who had extended relaxations to the BNP time and again in contravention of the authority’s rules and regulations and causing significant losses to the authority.

The 13.5 acre plot in question was auctioned off by the CDA on March 9, 2005 to the BNP Group for Rs4.88 billion and the possession of the plot was handed over later the same year after receiving just Rs800 million. So far, the BNP has paid the CDA Rs1.02 billion with the remaining Rs3.85 billion recoverable in instalments till 2026.

In its petition, the BNP had said there had been no inaction or default on its part and during an earlier hearing of August 12, the BNP’s counsel Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan had argued that the CDA had offered the plot with the condition of flexible height and that it was the CDA’s responsibility to get a no-objection certificate (NOC) from the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) for the construction of the building.

He maintained that the unilateral cancellation of the lease deed by the CDA board was illegal, unlawful and contrary to fundamental rights. He asked the court to set aside the termination of the lease and the sealing of the building and to restrain the CDA from taking any coercive action.

In its report regarding the sealing of the construction site, the CDA said its officials had extended undue favours to the BNP from the start.

The report also said that the CDA had offered the plot to the BNP Group, which consisted of Bismillah Textile, Niagara Mills, Paragon City and the Dubai based Belhasa International Company. However, the lease agreement was signed with a firm named Elite Fashion, which was renamed BNP on May 2, 2005.

According to the certificate of incorporation of change, Elite Fashion, which was owned by Bismillah Textile, was obliged to continue using its former name along with the new one for a year.

However, the lease was signed between the CDA and BNP and the name of Elite Fashion was not mentioned on the document.

Published in Dawn, August 25th, 2016

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