ISLAMABAD, Aug 1: A bench of the Supreme Court Thursday brought joy to the worried employees of the Defence Housing Authority (DHA) establishment in the twin cities, by agreeing to unfreeze the DHA bank accounts to the extent that they get their salaries before Eid.

Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, who heads the bench, accepted a DHA request for the same and wrote in the order that “keeping in view the hardship of the employees, as well as the widows and the orphans, we relax the condition (for the DHA) to withdraw Rs52.8 million.” The order also allowed the banks to accept deposits in the DHA accounts.

But the order bound the establishment of the DHA Islamabad-Rawalpindi to furnish to the court the balance amount left in the DHA bank accounts, after deducting the Rs52.8 million salary paycheck from its total deposits of Rs260 million on July 19.

That day the court had ordered all DHA accounts frozen until it deposited a staggering amount of Rs22.29 billion with the court.

In requesting a limited review of that freeze order, DHA counsel Irfan Qadir read out from the preamble of the DHA Act of 2013, concerning the purpose of establishment of DHA.

It stated that the purpose was “to carry out schemes and projects of land development inter alia for the welfare of the bereaved families of martyrs, war injured, disabled and other persons of the defence forces of Pakistan” by providing them financial security in recognition of their selfless service for the defence of the nation.

The bench had ordered the freeze during suo motu hearings in allegedly corrupt investments made by the EOBI (Employees Old Age Benefit Institute) in the DHA land and property projects, without seeking approval of its Board of Trustees.

A probe conducted by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) suggested that EOBI made investments in two different DHA schemes.

One deal, worth Rs15.473 billion and signed on January 19, 2012, involved the purchase of 321 kanals of lands in the DHA Islamabad.

A second deal signed on March 15 this year involved EOBI paying Rs6.82 billion for 23 commercial plots of eight marla each, 12 residential plots of two kanals each and 162 three-bedroom and 29 five-bedroom villas in Sector F, Phase-I DHA Rawalpindi.

FIA’s Additional Director General Law Muhammad Azam Khan submitted an evaluation report by the National Engineering Services Pakistan (Nespak) comparing the old and present market value of the DHA properties. Final report will be submitted later.

Implementing the EOBI-DHA deals also involved, in complicated ways, the Capital Development Authority, Bahria Town and the construction company Habib Rafiq.

In its Thursday’s proceedings, the bench also ordered unfreezing of the accounts of Messers Eden Housing Limited of Lahore after Advocate Tariq Mehmood told the court that the developers had deposited an amount of Rs976 million with the court registrar and a remaining amount of Rs900 million will be submitted before the next date of hearing which is August 21.

The counsel also prayed that the accounts of the society be released enabling it to make payments to its employees and construction labour before Eid.