ISLAMABAD: The landowners of a housing scheme, meant for lawyers, have challenged the proceedings of the meeting of a committee chaired by a serving judge of the Supreme Court that allowed compulsory acquisition of their land.

The landowners, Ahsan Imtiaz Bhatty, Yasar Khan Swati and Irshad Swati, filed a petition in Islamabad High Court (IHC) against the decision of the committee constituted by the Federal Government Employees Housing Authority (FGEHA), which was presided over by Justice Maqbool Baqir, for the development of the Supreme Court Bar Association of Pakistan (SCBAP) Housing Society.

In a recent meeting of the committee, it was decided that Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act, that empowers compulsory acquisition of land for public purpose, would be invoked.

The petitioners contended that the FGEHA in its 13thexecutive board meeting held on May 20, 2021, had constituted the land supervisory committee (LSC) but the minutes of the meeting were “silent on the composition and legal mandate of the committee except for the fact that an honourable judge of the august Supreme Court of Pakistan is heading it.”

The LSC recommended that “the deputy commissioner FGEHA be authorised to impose Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act…for accommodation of allottees who may be affected by the land sharing and for coping up with the shortfall if required.”

The petition alleged that the committee had opted to invoke Section 4 to acquire land for the housing scheme which was against the dictum laid down by the IHC judgement related to acquisition of land.

It may be noted that the IHC in a judgement has held that “every affected citizen who was subjected to the power of compulsory land acquisition and whose right to either allotment of plot or payment in monetary terms is acknowledged by the Capital Development Authority (CDA) has a constitutional right to be compensated without further delay based on the principle of equivalence, otherwise it will be confiscatory and in violation of fundamental rights guaranteed under Article 9, 23 and 24 of the Constitution.”

The petition contended that the IHC judgement had not been assailed and attained finality.

It said the judgement binds the FGEHA and the CDA to acquire land by fairly compensating the landowners in accordance with the market rates.

According to the petition, the FGEHA on the instruction of the LSC is forcibly acquiring petitioners’ land at nominal prices under Section 4 despite the fact that it is not being acquired for public purpose but for a real estate project.

The petition requested the court to declare the LSC illegal and its directions as void ab initio.

It sought direction to the FGEHA to “re-evaluate the compensation offered in line with the prevailing market price of adjoining land and in light of the principles laid down by the IHC.”

The petition also requested the court to restrain the government functionaries “from forcible dispossession of the petitioners from their legally owned land, either directly or indirectly using state machinery and power.”

IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah will hear the petition on Tuesday (today).

Published in Dawn, August 24th, 2021