ISLAMABAD, Aug 9: A not-so-secret secret of ISI spilled out in the Supreme Court on Thursday when the apex court took up public interest cases suo motu. A bench comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and Justice M. Javed Butter was probing why farmlands, leased out by the Capital Development Authority (CDA) for growing agri-products for Islamabad citizens, were allowed to be converted into palatial farmhouses when it found Directorate-General Inter Service Intelligence listed among the recipients of the largess.

“Is it a safe house?” asked PPP Senator Enver Baig about the farm plot listed in the name of ISI in a CDA report to the court.

Senator Baig, who was present at the hearing, alleged that many farms in Chak Shahzad were places of “all kinds of sins” in the midst of rural poverty.

At the last hearing, the Supreme Court had ordered the CDA to name the persons given agriculture farms in Chak Shahzad and for what purpose.

CDA’s Deputy Director-General Law Shahid Murtaza submitted a report stating 426 plots, in eight different suburbs, including Chak Shahzad, Murree Road, Kahuta Road, Tarlai Kalan, were given to different people. He said CDA had formed a committee to check whether the farms, average size two acres, were being used for the purpose they were allotted.

However the court expressed displeasure at CDA’s failure to indicate whether the purpose was being served or not.

“Do not make mockery of Supreme Court orders and furnish complete details of each plot,” the CJ observed adding the CDA had to cancel the lands because these were concessions on part of the government.

“Please understand the spirit,” Justice Buttar explained adding this court could give some relief if the CDA found it difficult to deal with organizations like the ISI.

UTILITY STORES: The apex court also directed secretary, Industries, to submit a comprehensive report on its policy of opening new utility stores and the mechanism being adopted for providing edible articles in these stores at subsidised rates.

The order followed when Senator Baig deplored that despite the announcements made about opening new utility stores in the last two budgets, no initiative had so far been taken. When the senator lamented the reported hoarding of two million tons of wheat flour, the court ordered the Punjab Chief Secretary to take steps to discourage the alleged hoarding and submit a report in this regard.

Reportedly the private sector is hoarding wheat despite highest ever production to inflate prices in the country.

PRICE-HIKE: Dr Ashfaq Hassan Khan, Special Secretary Finance, appeared along with secretaries agriculture, industries, commerce and finance. They were told to take some practical and time-tested steps instead of forming committees to check price hike.

Dr Khan said the government was involved in an exercise to check price-hike but sought time to submit the policy in this regard to the court.

The court rejected the reports on price situation submitted by Islamabad Chief Commissioner Khalid Pervez and the Rawalpindi District Coordination Officer (DCO) Irfan Elahi, observing that these reports contained fictitious prices of vegetables and fruits. Traders have been given freedom to fix prices at will.

PPP Senator Babar Awan compared the prices from the reports in Jhelum and Rawalpindi to show that prices of vegetable producing in Jhelum were higher than in Islamabad. Same was true for atta price.

All the chief secretaries of the provinces and the Islamabad administration were directed by the court to adhere to the Price Control and Profiteering Act 1977 in letter and spirit.