ISLAMABAD, Feb 12: Rule of law may be the cry of the day but the federal Estate Office is not allowed its own panel of lawyers to regain government accommodations from illegal occupiers.

“We are burdened with more than 1,000 cases of illegal occupation and can win most of them, only if we could pursue them diligently in the courts,” Estate Officer Asim Ayub Khan told Dawn.

No wonder his office is inundated with litigations. One has to be extraordinarily lucky or well-connected to get good accommodation at low rent in Islamabad.

A total of 457 government houses in the city are said to be in illegal occupation, according to Estate Office staff.

Of them, 168 are occupied by officers of the Islamabad Electricity Supply Company, 100 by the officers of Pakistan Telecommunication Company, 87 by the officers of General Post Office, 71 by the employees of the National Database Registration Authority (Nadra), 20 by the employees of Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation and 11 by officers of the Pakistan Television Corporation.

“Our problems to arrange accommodations to government officers on the waiting list are compounded because we lack a team of lawyers to pursue cases against the illegal occupants,” said Asim Ayub Khan.

Instead the Estate Office hires lawyers on temporary basis. Even that it cannot do independently.

“For seeking legal assistance of private lawyers we have to request the Ministry of Housing and Works. It forwards our request to the ministry of law and justice for approval. This takes time,” Mr Ayub said.

And the 20 to 30 days that the process took usually went to the benefit of the illegal occupants - thanks to the legal teams their employers keep on permanent basis and the support their unions extend to the occupants in the streets.

The Estate Office feels helpless as it cannot take on these forces without having lawyers trained and well conversant with the issues of allotment of government houses.

Last year, the National Assembly Standing Committee on Housing allowed the Estate Office to appoint its own legal team of five lawyers and also provided special funds for that.

However, the then housing minister, Rehmatullah Kakar, appointed only one lawyer hailing from Balochistan. But he did not stay long and left.

An official of the Ministry of Housing and Works, which controls the Estate Office, revealed that the ministry had written to the law division to allow the Estate Office have its own panel of lawyers, suggesting four names.

“In response the law ministry said it would form the panel for the Estate Office to call whenever it required their services,” he said.