ISLAMABAD, July 20: Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui of Islamabad High Court on Friday directed the chairman of the Capital Development Authority (CDA) to submit details of the development schemes he inaugurated along with Faisal Sakhi Butt as well as the allotment of plots and uplift schemes initiated on the recommendations of the businessman since he resumed the charge in January this year.

The court passed these orders while hearing a land allotment case based on three identical petitions of Senator Babar Awan, former president of Islamabad Bar Niazullah Niazi and Barrister Zafarullah Khan.

Moments before the hearing of the case, a number of PPP workers, including the CDA employees, chanted slogans against Senator Awan on the court premises while the CDA chairman, Farkhand Iqbal, was also present in the court.

The slogans they chanted included: ‘hum nahi mantay zulm kay zabtay’ (the arbitrary decisions are not acceptable), and ‘party ka jo ghaddar hai, maut ka haqdar hai’ (the traitor of party deserves death penalty).

When the court resumed hearing of the case, the CDA chairman entered the courtroom with a smiling face that irked the judge who reminded him that he was entering the courtroom, not a funfair, and must show respect.

It is a very serious matter and nobody would be allowed to dramatise the proceedings and trick the court, the judge added.

He also expressed annoyance over the nuisance created by the political workers and said political differences must be settled at the party secretariat.

During the hearing, advocate Athar Minallah appeared on behalf of the CDA and requested the court that since he was examining the relevant record of the case; therefore, the proceedings might be deferred.

Advocate Niazi told the court that Mr Minallah had struggled for the rule of law and the lawyers wished that he should support them in eradicating corruption from the government departments. He demanded that the political workers, who were chanting slogans on the court premises, must be sent to jail.

The court deferred till July 27 the indictment of five CDA officials - director general planning Ghulam Sarwar Sandhu, deputy director general Syed Imran Shah, director municipal administration Mansoor Ahmed Khan and directors Riaz Ahmed Randhawa and Haseen Raza Zaidi - for their defiance to the  restraining order regarding meetings with Mr Butt as their counsel Raja Aamir Abbas was engaged in the Supreme Court.

Advocate Abbas also filed an appeal against the orders of Justice Siddiqui for framing the contempt of court charges against the five officials under the contempt of court act 2012.

It was the first appeal filed in the IHC under the said act. The Supreme Court is yet to decide the fate of the contempt of court act.

In the appeal filed under section 11 of the contempt of court act, the counsel of the five officials stated that the IHC single bench had restrained the civic agency’s officials from meeting Mr Butt in their official capacity but they met him as office-bearers of CDA Officers Welfare Association. During the meeting, they requested Mr Butt not to interfere in their official affairs.

He said the CDA officials had tendered their unconditional apology and. therefore, the contempt of court proceedings initiated against them might be stopped, the appeal added.