ISLAMABAD, April 21: District and session judge “east” Syed Kausar Abbas Zaidi on Saturday issued notices to the Islamabad police on an application filed by a lawyer seeking registration of criminal case against property tycoon Malik Riaz Hussain for allegedly grabbing the land of lawyers.

Chaudhry Abdul Aziz, counsel for the affected lawyers Faisal Younis and Raja Haroon, cited Malik Riaz Hussain the owner of Bahria Town, IG Islamabad, SSP and SHO police station Bhara Kahu as respondents.

He told the court that the employees of property tycoon tried to grab their land measuring 300 kanals at Phulgaran, Bhara Kahu on Thursday.

He said when the family members tried to stop the land grabbers they opened fire on them. The villagers then called the Rescue 15 which sent a police team headed by SHO Bara Kahu Chaudhry Akhtar for their rescue, he added.

He claimed that the IG Islamabad Bani Amin, within 15 minutes of the arrival of the police, suspended SHO Akhtar and replaced him with inspector Khalid Masood.

According to him, the new SHO Bhara Kahu was appointed on the instructions of Malik Riaz and he facilitated the property tycoon in capturing the inherited land worth Rs300 million of the lawyers and their relatives.

Advocate Aziz said the owner of Bahria Town Malik Riaz prior to sending the bulldozers and other heavy machinery at the site also had sent a pay order of Rs30 million to the lawyers and their families and warned them to leave the land otherwise be ready to face the consequences. The land owners, however, returned the pay order and did not leave their land, he added.The court directed the IG, SSP and SHO Bhara Kahu to submit their reply by Monday and adjourned the hearing.

Meanwhile, district and Islamabad High Court (IHC) bar associations in a joint meeting condemned the actions of Malik Riaz and passed unanimous resolution against him in which they demanded the Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry to take a suo motu notice of the property tycoon aggression.

Speaking on the occasion, Nayyab Hassan Gardezi, president IHC bar, said it seemed that Malik Riaz, not Syed Yousuf Raza Gillani, was running the government. He claimed that the posting and transfers of police, CDA and the officials of district administration was being done on the instructions of the property tycoon.

He alleged that the CDA developed its schemes for benefitting the tycoon and even the authority amended its zoning regulations to facilitate his housing projects.

Javed Akbar Shah, president district bar, claimed that Malik Riaz transferred an inspector of his own choice to Bhara Kahu before the recent land grabbing and it was his planned move. He alleged Malik Riaz in order to grab the others land had managed to appoint his men at key posts of the CDA, ICT and police department.

It may be mentioned here that on April 18 the CDA gave up its decade-long litigation with property tycoon enabling the tycoon to complete its much awaited housing projects in the federal capital without any legal hitch.