ISLAMABAD: Following Islamabad High Court (IHC)’s orders, which termed Park View Housing Society owned by PTI senior leader Aleem Khan illegal, the Capital Development Authority (CDA) has cancelled the no-objection certificate (NOC) of the society.

“We have cancelled NOC of Park View Housing Society,” said director regional planning Abdul Haq Brohi.

Speaking to Dawn, he said all directives of IHC related to the housing scheme will be implemented in letter and spirit.

Recently, the IHC declared the society a classic case of breach of trust since the custodian of land of Islamabad, the CDA, failed to discharge its statutory obligations.

The society had been given NOC after allowing it to use a portion of CDA’s acquired land for the construction of a road to the site.

IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah deciding identical petitions against the ‘encroachment’ of the private housing society on the state and private land held that this case does fall within the ambit of anti-corruption watchdog.

The court had declared that the NOC purportedly issued in favour of the M/s Park View City was an outcome of abuse of authority and was illegal and void, having been granted without lawful authority and jurisdiction.

The court held that “such use of acquired land is misuse of authority and is in breach of the fiduciary duty of the authority as a trustee on behalf of the people of Pakistan.”

The court noted that the “summary [for grant of NOC] was not only misleading but an abuse of authority. It was ironically a treacherous display of bending over backwards to benefit a private profit earning entity at the cost of public interest.”

The IHC ruled that the summary also concealed the nature of the landscape of the location and its illegal injurious damage.

Published in Dawn, January 13th, 2021