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LAHORE, March 14: The Lahore High Court on Thursday gave the interior ministry two weeks to reply to an estranged Ittefaq Group family allegation that its properties were taken over by the government as part of the Sharif Family’s exile deal.
Should the ministry again fail to file a reply, the interior secretary shall appear personally on the next date, the court directed. The petition was moved by Mian Ilyas Miraj and 13 other members of the family of Mian Mirajuddin, brother of Mian Sharif and uncle of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif in 2001 soon after the Sharifs’ exile in December 2000. Several notices were issued to the interior ministry but there was no response.
Thursday’s order was passed by Justice Maulvi Anwarul Haq, who is currently seized of the petition. Filed through Advocates Mansoor Ali Shah and Syed Zafar Ali, it also cites as respondents 18 members of the Sharif family. No notice could be issued to them for want of address.
The petition specifies the following jointly-owned properties confiscated by the government after ‘the deal’:
INDUSTRIAL ASSETS: Brothers Steel and Ilyas Enterprises (Pvt) Limited. The petitioner family claims 50 per cent share in the two concerns along with the Sharifs.
RESIDENTIAL: 135-Upper Mall, Lahore. The petitioner family claims one-seventh share along with the Sharifs and five other families of the defunct Ittefaq Group.
LAND: Eighty-eight kanals at Bhugtian, Raiwind; 14.2 kanals at Bhai Pheru, Chunian; 39.3 kanals at Bhai Pheru. The properties are owned by all seven families of the group jointly, according to the petition.
The petition said an inchoate memorandum of understanding was signed by the seven families to apportion the Ittefaq Group’s assets. Litigation followed and went up to the Supreme Court, which accepted the petitioner family’s status as a co-sharer.
No deal involving the joint properties could thus, be signed by one owner or family behind the back of other owners or families, it added. Besides, confiscation per se could not form consideration of any agreement. It is a penalty which can only be imposed as a result of judicial proceedings.
The petitioner family complained that while jointly-owned properties were surrendered and seized, two mills exclusively belonging to the Sharif family remained untouched. They are: Mehr Ramazan Textile Mills and Chaudhry Sugar Mills. The family requested the court to declare the impugned seizure unlawful and order the release of the properties to the extent of its share.
