ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court asked the Employees Old-age Benefits Institution (EOBI) on Wednesday to make up its mind whether it intended to retain or surrender the properties after getting back the payments it had earlier made through investments in what was perceived to be dubious real estate business.

A three-judge bench headed by Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali asked Advocate M. Bilal, counsel for the EOBI, to inform the court about the organisation’s plan on Sept 17.

The court had taken notice of billions of rupees of investments in private sector projects without approval by the EOBI board of trustees.

Advocate Bilal sought time for submitting the EOBI plan because it needed the board’s approval.

The court issued the directive after Advocate Tariq Mehmood, representing Eden Housing Scheme Ltd, regretted that despite depositing Rs976 million with the SC registrar, properties in different housing schemes — Eden Gardens, Eden Extension, Eden Boulevard and Eden Gardens Extension in Lahore and Eden Villas in Faisalabad — had not been released.

He said the company had been penalised twice, but the properties were not being released by the EOBI. The properties will be sold to pay back the remaining amount of Rs900m.

Advocate Mehmood complained that despite paying a substantial amount, his clients were being harassed by the Federal Investigation Agency on one pretext or the other.

The court directed the FIA not to harass the management of Eden Housing Scheme Ltd till further orders, though the parties would be free to take legal remedy against the cases registered by the agency.

Advocate Salman Akram Raja also advanced similar arguments in respect of Vision Developers which had developed River Edge Housing Society in Multan. He said his clients were willing to pay back Rs600m out of a total of Rs2.6bn if the EOBI surrendered the properties. The rest of the money will be paid after selling the released properties.

The court ordered the FIA not to take further action on the basis of FIRs it had registered against the management of Vision Developers.

Advocate Iftikhar Gilani, the counsel for Diamond Evaluators, and Advocate Ali Sibtain Fazli, representing Pak-Arab Housing Scheme, also drew the court’s attention to the similar harassments by the FIA.

The court asked Deputy Attorney General Sajid Ilyas Bhatti, who had filed an interim report on behalf of the FIA, to submit a final report on the agency’s investigation into the EOBI scam as early as possible.

The court also issued a show-cause notice to the chief executive of Geo Television asking him to explain why contempt proceedings should not be initiated against him for not complying with its Aug 1 order.

The chief executive was required to produce a DVD and transcript of the programme “Aaj Kamran Khan Ke Sath” aired on July 30. The programme had discussed an article by Advocate Babar Sattar headlined “Hubris as justice” relating to the EOBI case and its merits.

In compliance to a similar order, Daily Dawn had already submitted its editorial policy about publishing articles.