ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Friday dismissed the petition filed against the cancellation of the government house to a member of the Anti-Dumping Tribunal while asking the housing ministry to provide official accommodation to the high court judges.

Justice Babar Sattar directed the government to allocate funds to construct judges’ houses by March next year and sought the removal of houses allotted to the judges from the Estate Office Pool.

The decision for the allocation of houses came during a hearing of a plea filed by Sumera Nazir Siddiqui, who alleged the ministries of law and housing treated her in a discriminatory and whimsical manner. The petitioner said she was initially allotted a house from the pool which was subsequently cancelled.

The report filed by the Ministry of Housing in this matter said judges of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) were allotted accommodation under Rule 6(7) of the accommodation rules.

Justice Sattar dismisses plea against cancellation of govt residence

The attorney general stated that the federation conceded that the allotment of residences to judges is subject to provisions of the High Court Judges (Leave, Pension and Privileges) Order, 1997.

Justice Sattar noted that the judges were entitled to accommodation on the day of their appointment and throughout the service. Their entitlement to the provision of accommodation by the state is governed by the presidential order and not the accommodation rules, he added.

He noted that five of the eight serving judges of IHC have been provided accommodation, whereas the remaining three serving judges will be provided accommodation in Category Type-I after the next three houses fall vacant. He termed this as “impinges on the independence of the judiciary.”

Justice Sattar ordered the housing ministry that “the names of judges will be removed from the list of allottees maintained under the rules to ensure that there exists no perception that judges are to be allotted houses from the pool that is reserved for FGSs”. He further directed the government to “expedite” the construction of residences for judges of the IHC.

The process of preparing a PC-1 for allocation of funds for construction of residences on a six-acre plot reserved for such purpose and allotted by CDA will be completed by March 2024, so that appropriate allocations can be made in the next financial year.

Lack of transparency

The court also observed a lack of transparency and arbitrariness and allotments have been made out of turn” and directed the government to “involve the Ministry of Information Technology (IT) to create a database of all FGSs/state employees who are entitled to allotment.

The court noted that the rules do not support the issuance of allotment letters on a subject-to-vacancy basis. The practice has created a lack of transparency and room for arbitrariness and asked the ministry to abolish this practice.

The judgement also examined the appointment of Raziq Sanjrani, bother of Senate chief Sadiq Sanjrani, and his allotment through the Estate Office Pool.

It pointed out numerous violations of rules and procedures in the appointment and allotment. The judge referred this matter to the prime minister for taking appropriate action.

Justice Sattar clarified that he was not exercising “suo motu powers” in enumerating the scope of the accommodation rules. The court further directed the secretary housing to prepare general waiting lists after authentication of the data of federal government servants placed in GWLs for various categories and verify such data with the help of Nadra and the Establishment Division.

Published in Dawn, October 7th, 2023