ISLAMABAD, June 10: As the capital city is abuzz with the controversy revolving around allegations of business deal between Malik Riaz Hussain and Dr Arsalan Iftikhar, the Supreme Court has fixed for Tuesday a number of cases all relating to the Bahria Town.
These cases have been a pain in the neck for the owner of the Bahria Town empire, Malik Riaz Hussain, and have become the basis of the present controversy.
A television anchor has already told the Supreme Court hearing a suo motu case on the financial wrongdoing involving Dr Arsalan that these cases had given the powerful tycoon sleepless nights as the chief justice had issued 42 orders against Bahria Town on one day.
When a three-judge bench comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice Jawwad S. Khawaja and Justice Khilji Arif Hussain will take up the cases relating to Bahria Town on Tuesday, it will have 12 cases against the property magnate. But on March 26 the court had a long list of cases before it all relating to Bahria Town.
Most of the cases relate to amalgamation of plots of different housing schemes into Bahria Town. One case relates to the merging of 214 kanals from the revenue officers housing scheme with the Bahria Town for development purposes. The project was later sold to the Defence Housing Authority (DHA).
The Lahore High Court was directed to consider constituting a special bench to decide such cases.
In another case, acquisition of land by the Bahria Town in 2006 to develop a Bahria Golf City in the picturesque rural village of Salkhaiter located on the foot of the Murree hills, about 15 kms from the Rawal Dam, was in question. However, this case was withdrawn by petitioners.
Yet another case is about the mysterious murder of Muhammad Fayyaz, a security guard of Bahria Town. The case was lodged in 2008 by Shaukat Ali, a supervisor in the DHA, but since October 10, 2010 no progress has been made.
One of the most infamous cases relates to the Bahria drag car race event of Dec 5, 2010, that had claimed the lives of five spectators.
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