ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) administration has sought an explanation from a sessions judge, an additional registrar, a deputy registrar and another official for ‘false’ verification of employees to make them eligible for subsidised plots.

Sources in the IHC administration told Dawn that the explanation had been sought from District and Sessions Judge Raja Jawad Abbas Hassan currently posted as Special Judge Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) Islamabad, Additional Registrar Imtiaz Ahmed, Deputy Registrar Ali Ahmed and Assistant Mohammad Mushtaq.

The Federal Government Employees Housing Authority (FGEHA) in a letter to the IHC revealed that the registrar office had verified the false claims of the employees in 2017 whose appointments were declared void by the Supreme Court in 2016.

Due to the verification of the IHC’s registrar office, the ineligible officers were allotted expensive plots at subsidised rates.

The housing authority in another letter quoted the application of Additional Registrar Lahore High Court (LHC) Abdul Hafeez seeking a plot but his request was turned down since he was not working in the federal capital.

According to the FGEHA, Mr Hafeez pointed out the allotment of plots to additional registrars Shahazada Aslam and Umar Daraz Shakir of the LHC and Shakeel Ahmed Qazi of Sindh High Court in subsidised housing schemes.

However, the housing authority stated: “A scrutiny of the record has revealed that these employees were allotted plots as per policy of the FGEHA after verification of their service particulars from the IHC on Aug 1, 2017, and Oct 23, 2017.”

Subsequently, the IHC administration sought explanation from the sessions judge and the officials over the false verification.

An official from whom the explanation had been sought said it was verified that Aslam, Shakir and Qazi were eligible to get plots on the cut-off date of filing applications which was in 2015.

They had applied for subsidised plots of the FGEHA in F-14 and F-15.

The sources in the FGEHA told Dawn that the authority had moved to cancel the plots of these three senior officials of the IHC.

However, insiders said the allottees had already sold the offer letter a couple of years ago.

Investors in the real estate sector purchased such offer letters since the price of the plots increased manifold after the development of sectors.

The IHC division bench, comprising Chief Justice Athar Minallah and Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani, declared the FGEHA’s real estate project for the development of both the sectors illegal.

As per the court judgement, the allotment of plots at subsidised rates to

elite groups, including judges, bureaucracy, lawyers and journalists, caused Rs1 trillion loss to the public exchequer.

The verdict highlighted anomalies even in the registration as it noted that “Even the selection made from about 135,000 registered members in membership drive-II lacked transparency.”

Published in Dawn, April 18th, 2022