ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) has issued a directive to the Capital Development Authority (CDA) to evict police officials who have illegally occupied 200 government flats since 2007.
The court has also ordered the registration of criminal cases against the officials for encroaching on CDA’s properties.
The decision was made by an IHC division bench consisting of Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani and Justice Tariq Mehmood Jahangiri in response to an intra-court appeal by CDA. The court declared that the police officials had been unlawfully occupying the flats for 16 years.
The court has directed the Inspector General of Police (IGP) Islamabad and the Secretary of Interior to register criminal cases against all the officials and employees of the Police Department who have illegally occupied the flats by force.
The court has also ordered the initiation of departmental action against these officials and has requested a compliance report to be submitted before the court within one month.
CDA had constructed the apartments at G-6/1, Aabpara, at a cost of PKR 105 million for the Ministry of Housing and Works and the flats were meant to be handed over to the Estate Office in 2005 but were offered to the affected people during the October 2005 earthquake as temporary shelters.
In 2007, before the Lal Masjid operation, police officials occupied these apartments. When the Estate Office attempted to evict them that same year, some officials obtained a stay order from Lahore High Court’s Rawalpindi bench, which motivated their colleagues to occupy the vacant apartments.
The counsel for the CDA argued that the police officials had forcibly occupied the flats under the garb of the Lal Masjid operation.
He contended that all the flats were constructed by CDA and the amounts spent on them had not been reimbursed by the Estate Office.
The bench observed that the illegal occupation of the flats by the police officials was a clear case of highhandedness and that they were responsible for encroachment on the flats.
The police officials have failed to substantiate their illegal occupation of the flats on the basis of any legal permission, the bench added.
The court concluded that the Police Department, which is responsible for upholding the law, had instead occupied the property by force, a clear act of illegality and highhandedness on their part.
As a result, the officials are liable to be prosecuted.
