ISLAMABAD: The ministry of housing and works made out-of-turn allotment of 30 government houses to judicial officers and staff of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) to which they were not entitled.

For decades, senior civil servants and other officials of the federal government have been waiting for the allotment of official residences. However, during the last three months the ministry allotted the houses to the IHC officials, including Mohammad Idrees Khan Kasi, the younger brother of Chief Justice Mohammad Anwar Khan Kasi, and officials whose appointments are under the scrutiny of the Supreme Court.

In January last year, a senior lawyer challenged the appointments in the Supreme Court and the apex court is yet to decide the petition. The houses allotted to the IHC officials were located in sectors F-6, F-8, I-8, G-10, G-6 and G-7.

According to documents available with Dawn, the allottees also included the officials who were inducted less than a year ago.

After the allotment of 30 houses, the IHC administration on May 6 forwarded another request to the housing ministry for the accommodation of 42 more officials of the court.

The housing ministry, however, sought an advice from the ministry of law and justice and the latter ruled that the IHC staff was not entitled to get the houses from the Estate Office pool.

An advice from the ministry of law and justice dated June 1, 2015, asserted that the Supreme Court in a landmark judgment on the allotment of government houses in 2012 had directed that the allotment could only be made in accordance with the General Waiting List (GWL).

The GWL comprises officers who applied for the official residences decades ago and are still waiting for their turn. The apex court passed the verdict on a petition filed by Mohammad Afsar against the ‘out-of-turn’ allotments of the government houses.

As per the GWL, 178 officers are waiting for the category-I houses, 280 for category-II, 4,234 for category-III and 4,613 officials for the category-IV houses.

The law ministry’s advice stated that the decision of the apex court on the observance of the GWL was binding on all courts including the IHC.

It added that as per the Accommodation Allocation Rules 2002, the employees of the IHC were not entitled to the allotment of government houses.

It said sub-rule 3 of rule 4 of the AAR under which houses were allotted to the IHC officials “does not call for any interpretation. In case it is desired to make employees of the IHC eligible for the accommodation from the Estate Office, necessary amendments will have to be made to sub-rule 1 of rule 3 which specifies that “All married federal government servants in the ministries, divisions and their attached departments except those maintaining their own pool of accommodation or funds for hiring of houses shall be eligible for accommodation from the Estate Office.”

However, the secretary housing in his note said since the IHC was recently established, the maturity of the GWL may amount to denial of the facility to the entire body having a constitutional status.

“The residential area for the officers and staff of the IHC has already been planned, therefore, some transitional arrangements have to be made, may be in a form of hired accommodation for a year or two.”

In response to the secretary housing’s note, the law ministry suggested that “it will be advisable that the matter may be settled through the process of hiring (of private houses) after consultation with the IHC for the settlement of modalities.”

Sources in the housing ministry said initially the Estate Office was reluctant to allot houses to the IHC employees but after the arrest of an estate officer late last year, the housing ministry staff was not in a position to resist the pressure.

A senior official of the IHC told Dawn that the administration did not consider the length of service and seniority of the officials. He said the IHC officials who were on the top of the GWL were not considered.

The administration forwarded to the housing ministry the names of those officials who had recently been inducted and were yet to complete the prohibition period, he added.

When this reporter met a judicial authority, he said he also received some reports about ‘pick and choose’ in the allotment. He, however, said action would be taken against the official responsible for not observing the criteria.

When contacted, Mohammad Jahangir Awan, the additional registrar of the IHC, who was dealing with the allotments, said by virtue of his post he was supposed to forward the letters to the housing ministry. “You may better contact the housing ministry or the law division for details,” he added.

Published in Dawn, June 13th, 2015

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