ISLAMABAD: The Capital Development Authority (CDA) on Tuesday removed all 500 chambers illegally constructed by the lawyers on the football ground in F-8 in compliance with the order of the Islamabad High Court (IHC).

While disposing of a petition against encroachments earlier this year, the IHC had directed the CDA to retrieve the amenity plot from the lawyers by March 23.

The lawyers, however, challenged the order in the Supreme Court which restrained the civic agency from conducting the anti-encroachment operation till May 2.

The Islamabad Bar Association filed a review petition against the Supreme Court’s order. However, since there was no restraining order in this matter, the CDA razed all chambers and retrieved the land.

Before the operation, some 300 lawyers had voluntarily surrendered their chambers while some even sold out the structure at a throw away price.

The lawyers did not put up any resistance during the operation. The football ground wears a deserted look and was full of debris as the civic agency concluded the operation on Tuesday.

The Islamabad Bar Association president was of the view that the operation should not have been commenced until the adjudication of the review petition. He said the lawyers should have been allowed to continue their chambers till the completion of lawyers’ complex.

The review petition was moved on the grounds that the March 2 order of the apex court contains 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 courts Islamabad premises from Sector F-8 to G-10 was stayed. Then the Supreme Court had postponed further hearing of the case for indefinite period.

Published in Dawn, May 19th, 2021