ISLAMABAD, Dec 5: On Friday the Supreme Court will resume hearing of a set of petitions seeking review of its Dec 18, 2009, verdict which had ordered a wholesale giant to pull down its huge commercial outlet in Karachi built over 4.9 acres of land reserved for a playground.

A three-judge bench comprising Justice Mian Shakirullah Jan, Justice Jawwad S. Khawaja and Justice Ijaz Ahmed Chaudhry will take up the review petitions after a break of over eight months. The petitions were filed by Makro-Habib Ltd, Army Welfare Trust and the federal government through defence secretary. A joint application was also moved by residents of Sector 8-F, Lines Area re-development project, Karachi. On March 17 this year, the apex court had stayed demolition of the infrastructure which was to be pulled down in three months after its judgment issued on Dec 18, 2009.

The status quo was granted at the request of Advocate Khalid Anwar, the counsel for Makro-Habib, who had sought an interim injunction since the deadline set by the court to raze the infrastructure was fast approaching.

Authored by Justice Jawwad Khawaja, the verdict had ordered Makro-Habib to raze the commercial outlet and restore the 4.9-acre land on which the infrastructure was built to its original playground status.

“The playground was and will remain an amenity plot falling within the jurisdiction and zoning/regulatory control of now defunct City District Government Karachi (CDGK),” the verdict said, adding that the government of Pakistan, acting in the name of former president Pervez Musharraf, had no legal authority to grant leasehold rights to the Army Welfare Trust (AWT) which later sub-leased the land to Makro-Habib to build a cash-and-carry wholesale outlet.

The court had not only cancelled the 2002 lease in favour of the AWT, but also the July 2006 sub-lease given to Makro-Habib.

It gave Makro-Habib three months to remove its structures and installations from the playground, restore it to the same condition as existed on the date of the sub-lease and hand over its vacant possession to the CDGK.

The court had taken notice of the matter after an article, “A plea to the Lord Chief Justice” by renowned columnist Ardeshir Cowasjee, appeared in Dawn. After the judgment, the Makro-Habib management had offered the CDGK to use the building of the store worth Rs800 million for a community centre as had been permitted in the court order.