ISLAMABAD – The Supreme Court of Pakistan Tuesday upheld the Islamabad High Court (IHC) verdict and ordered to demolish lawyers’ chambers and all illegal building/structures on football ground in Sector F-8 of the federal capital.
A three-member bench of the apex court headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Gulzar Ahmed and comprising Justice Ijaz ul Ahsan and Justice Sayyed Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi conducted hearing of the writ petition of Islamabad Bar Association (IBA) against the removal of lawyers chambers from the football ground.
Earlier, a four-member larger bench of the IHC headed by Chief Justice Athar Minallah and comprising Justice Aamer Farooq, Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani and Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb declared on February 16 that lawyers’ chambers on sports ground in the F-8 sector of the federal capital were “illegally constructed” and directed the relevant authorities to remove them.
During the hearing, Justice Gulzar said that all illegal chambers must be demolished and the lawyers do not have any claim on the football ground. He added, “If someone wants to practice, then that person can open his office somewhere else.”
Representing the IBA, Shoaib Shaheen Advocate undertook that in Sector F-8, Islamabad, plot/land of football ground/park on which some lawyers have constructed their chambers will be vacated by them within two months time, whereupon the Capital Development Authority, Islamabad and the District Administration, Islamabad Capital Territory, will be free to demolish all constructions i.e. all illegal building/structures on the land of the said football ground/park, clear the same and restore it for which the said land is meant for i.e. football ground/park.
The counsel informed that some structure of the courts have also been erected on the land of football ground/parks. At this, the CJP ordered that if that be so, the Registrar of the Islamabad High Court, Islamabad, shall immediately ensure that such land is vacated, court’s structure removed and the courts are shifted to proper regular premises. In this regard, the Registrar of the High Court shall submit a compliance report to the Registration of the apex court within one week.
The bench directed the petitioner’s counsel to file a compliance report to the Supreme Court Registrar in two months.
The IHC judgment had stated, “(a) The purported allotments made by the Islamabad District Bar in the Playground are illegal, void and without jurisdiction and authority. (b) The encroachments on any State land and any construction thereon in violation of the Ordinance of 1960 and the rules or regulations made there under are illegal, void and liable to be removed forthwith. (c) An Advocate who takes the law into his or her own hands or violates the law in any manner whatsoever is not eligible to be certified by the High Court as ‘fit and proper’ to plead and appear before the august Supreme Court. Likewise, an enrolled Advocate who volunteers to take law in his/her own hands cannot be certified as having ‘character and conduct’ for the purposes of being enrolled as an Advocate of the High Court.”
“Since a small fraction of the total number of members of the Islamabad District Bar are beneficiaries of the illegal construction of chambers, therefore, we are confident that as a gesture towards the actual stakeholders i.e. the general public, the members of the Bar will clear the illegal construction and restore the Playground for public use,” said the judgment.
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