ISLAMABAD: A lawyer moved a contempt petition before the Supreme Court on Monday, accusing the management of Karachi’s Bahria Town of violating a judgement of the apex court issued on March 21 last year.

The petition was filed by Hafiz Arfat Ahmed Chaudhry against Malik Riaz Hussain, chairman of Bahria Town Karachi (BTK), his son Ahmed Ali Riaz, Bina Riaz and Zain Malik.

The petitioner said he had purchased two plots at Karachi’s Bahria Sports City, which was launched in February 2016. The terms required the buyers to make payments in 16 instalments and the last instalment was due on March 16 this year.

According to the petitioner, he had cleared the entire sale consideration in 16 instalments over four years and at the moment nothing was outstanding against him.

Despite receiving the entire payment of Rs9.5 million against the two plots, the Bahria Town Karachi’s management had not handed over possession on the plea that these fell in an area which was not in its possession, the petitioner added.

He said the BTK management had assured the Supreme Court, which also formed a part of the court’s order of March 21 last year, through a clear commitment that the applicants who were allotted plots in areas which were not in actual possession of BTK would be allotted plots in an area which was in its possession. Otherwise, the BTK assured, they would be compensated “to their complete satisfaction”.

The petitioner contended that he had written four letters, from Aug 19 last year to April 21 this year, requesting the BTK to honour the undertaking given by it to the court and either adjust the plots of the petitioner in an area which was under its possession or compensate him appropriately.

According to the petitioner, he has yet to receive any reply to his letters. He contended that the respondents had absolutely no justification for their conduct since they had taken huge amounts from the petitioner, but had not given him any plot in negation of the 2016 agreement.

“Contempt of court proceedings be initiated against the developers,” the petitioner pleaded.

Appeal to NAB chairman

Meanwhile, a meeting of the subcommittee of representatives of the Pakistan Bar Council and allied bodies in the provinces as well as Islamabad expressed the hope that the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) chairman would consider tendering his resignation voluntarily.

The subcommittee said the NAB chief should resign in view of the July 20 Supreme Court judgement, according to which the bureau’s conduct in the Paragon City corruption case was a “clear manifestation of utter disregard of law, fair play, equity and propriety”.

“The present case is a classic example of trampling of fundamental rights, unlawful deprivation of freedom and liberty and the complete disregard for human dignity as guaranteed by the Constitution,” Justice Maqbool Baqar had written in his 87-page verdict.

The meeting stated that after the apex court’s judgement, NAB should at least set free the chief executive and chief editor of Jang group.

“It is a matter of gross high-handedness and victimisation of Shakeel-ur-Rehman, who should immediately be set free.”

Published in Dawn, August 25th, 2020