RAWALPINDI, Dec 11: Justice Ali Baqir Najafi of Lahore High Court (LHC)’s Rawalpindi bench on Tuesday directed the military and the Defence Housing Authority (DHA) to explain why they have stopped the transfer of a plot owned by a sacked military officer after he sold it to a private individual.

Iftikhar Ahmed Malik, who worked as a colonel in the army, was dismissed in September this year on the charges of receiving kickbacks during inspection of arms and ammunitions procured for the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police in 2010. Three majors were also sacked in the same case. They were Awais Chaudhry, Tabassum Daud and Khurram Sheikh. The four have challenged their dismissal in the LHC where the matter is pending adjudication.

Wasaf Khan Niazi, the counsel for Mr Malik, told the court that military authorities stopped the transfer of the one kanal plot at the DHA Phase II worth Rs4.5 million to the buyer. The counsel told the court that in May 2012, Mr Malik had purchased the plot from Zafar Ali. After his dismissal from service, he decided to sell it to meet his domestic expenses as his four daughters and a son were studying in different educational institutions.

Mr Malik signed a sale agreement with Shanul Haq on November 13 and submitted all the required documents to the director transfer and records of the DHA. At that time, he was assured that the plot would be transferred to the new owner in a couple of days.

However, later when the petitioner approached the officer concerned at the DHA, he was told that the transfer of his plot had been stopped as authorities in the GHQ did not give the green signal. He was told to get a no-objection certificate (NOC) for the sale of the plot.

The counsel pointed out before the court that the plot was a purchased property and had not been allotted to the petitioner on account of service benefit and his transfer could not be stopped by the GHQ.

Under section 8 (2) of DHA rules, he added, the authority can only withhold or cancel the plot of a member if he violated the terms and conditions. Asking for a nod from the military authorities for the transfer of a single plot is illegal and unjust, he contended.

The counsel also pointed out that article 23 of the constitution enabled every citizen to acquire, hold and dispose of property subject to the law. Under article 24, no citizen can be deprived of his property except the mode provided for in the constitution.

It may be noted that the four army officers were charged with accepting Rs11 million from a contractor to give a clean bill of health to the weapons, ammunition, bullet-proof jackets and bullet-proof helmets worth Rs7 billion which were then supplied to the KP police department in 2010. At that time, these four officers were posted at the inspectorate of armament, Rawalpindi.