ISLAMABAD: The Capital Development Authority (CDA) on Sunday night demolished 50 chambers of lawyers illegally constructed on a football ground in F-8 as the deadline for voluntarily clearing the chambers had expired on May 2.

The Islamabad Bar Association had filed a review petition against the Supreme Court order and the lawyers assumed that the CDA would not start an anti-encroachment drive till the adjudication of the review petition.

However, since there was no restraining order, the CDA launched an operation and demolished 50 out of the over 500 chambers illegally constructed on the football ground.

About 300 lawyers have voluntarily surrendered their chambers and collected their valuables. Some lawyers even sold out the structures at throwaway prices.

However, scores of lawyers have not vacated their chambers.

Talking to Dawn, Islamabad Bar Association President Advocate Chaudhry Fareed Kaif said lawyers who had proceeded to their native towns to celebrate Eid have not returned yet.

He said the lawyers were not expecting a sudden operation and were celebrating the Eid as usual.

He, however, said CDA should have waited for the outcome of the review petition pending before the Supreme Court.

The review petition was moved on the ground that the March 2 order of the apex court contained errors floating on the surface of the record which went unnoticed like the Aug 24, 2007, order by a larger bench of the Supreme Court in which the shifting of the district court Islamabad premises from F-8 to G-10 was stayed.

The Supreme Court had postponed further hearing of the case for an indefinite period.

The review petition was signed by a number of senior lawyers such as Sardar Latif Khosa, Hamid Khan, Syed Iqbal Hussain Shah Gillani, Haroonur Rashid, Mohammad Shoaib Shaheen, Sardar Shahbaz Ali Khan Khosa and Malik Mohammad Amir.

The review petition pleaded that the Aug 24 order categorically establishes that the federal government and the authorities concerned had not only given a clear undertaking that the existing chambers and the bar room would not be dislodged unless facilities to the bar were provided simultaneously with the shifting of the district courts.

Even the PC-1 concerning chambers of the lawyers had been approved and Rs109 million were likely to be released by or before June 30, 2009, by the CDA after that the construction work was to be undertaken.

In view of the stated position, the chambers should have been constructed by now.

The smooth transition in view of the commitment made before the highest judicial forum was binding on all courts and authorities, the review petition said.

Against this background, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) should not have passed its order on Feb 16, it added.

The high court had expected that as a gesture towards the actual stakeholders i.e. the general public, the members of the bar will clear the illegal construction and restore the playground for public use.

In case the playground is not restored, the federal government and CDA will restore the playground for the use of the public before March 23, 2021, the order had stated.

Published in Dawn, May 18th, 2021