ISLAMABAD: A number of allottees of F-14 and F-15 on Wednesday moved the Supreme Court against Islamabad High Court declaration on Feb 3 in which it termed the ongoing and upcoming government’s real estate ventures for bureaucracy and judges illegal.

The appeal was moved by 35 different government servants.

In its judgment, the IHC had regretted that the allotment of plots on subsidised rates to the elite groups caused Rs1 trillion loss to the public exchequer adding surprisingly, the list of successful beneficiaries posted on the website included senior members of the bureaucracy and serving and retired judges of the superior judiciary.

Virtually every judge of the district judiciary of Islamabad was amongst the beneficiaries, the judgment had observed adding ironically, they included judicial officers who were kept under observation either for incompetence or having questionable repute and also included those judicial officers who were dismissed from service pursuant to disciplinary proceedings or who had opted to resign.

High court terms govt’s real estate ventures for bureaucracy and judges illegal

Now in the appeal before the apex court, the petition questioned whether the land acquired for the Federal Government Employees Housing Authority (FGEHA) or the schemes of sector F/14, F 15 could be declared illegal when it was neither agitated nor was the subject matter of the writ petition filed before the high court.

The issue was taken up by the high court in suo motu jurisdiction when IHC cannot exercise or enjoy such powers under Article 199 of the Constitution as per judgments of the Supreme Court, argued the appeal.

Thus the high court judgment suffers from gross illegality and was based on erroneous assumption of jurisdiction and therefore liable to be set aside by Supreme Court being unconstitutional and illegal.

The petition contended that the jurisdiction exercised by the high court by declaring the criteria or revised criteria for allotment of policy did not vest in the high court by law and exercising such judicial power without any backing of law clearly interferes and encroach upon the legislative and executive domain and thus not sustainable in law.

Moreover, the high court has failed to appreciate that without challenging the vires of the Federal Government Employees Housing Authority Act, 2020 any act done protected thereunder could not be termed as illegal and unlawful, the petition pleaded.

The petition contended that the fairness of a particular decision taken in the fulfilment of certain policy was not open for the court to determine under judicial review jurisdiction through own motion when specifically it was executed and implemented as in the present case and no point of alleged malafide was agitated on grounds of violation of any fundamental rights.

The petition said the high court had failed to appreciate the true interpretation and application of the Constitution and law whereby the federal government was competent and has been authorised constitutionally to legislate laws on the federal legislative subject and to make policies and to implement the same in public interest and the same has been endorsed on the subject of same housing sectors F14/F15 by Supreme Court.

The present petitioners cannot be deprived being the civil servants/govt servants from their rights when particularly they met the criteria of approved policy and deposited the huge amount years back to the concerned authorities, the petition said.

Published in Dawn, February 24th, 2022