BAHRIA Town Karachi’s legal saga may have reached its watershed. With the Supreme Court recently taking up the implementation of its March 2019 verdict against the project, fresh questions had been raised about how far its developer had complied with the court’s orders. Since the original verdict, there had been very little information forthcoming about Bahria Town’s dealings with the Supreme Court; indeed, all information was jealously guarded by both court and state authorities. It was only after the spotlight turned on the Supreme Court’s bank account during the recent proceedings that it emerged that Bahria Town was significantly behind on its obligations, so much so that, under the terms of its original agreement, it could be deemed to have defaulted.

Bahria Town seemingly never intended to keep its end of the agreement. The property developer admits to having deposited a total of just Rs65bn in the Supreme Court’s accounts. This also appears to include a sum of Rs35bn, which was supposed to have been returned to the people of Pakistan by the UK authorities but was controversially deposited by the PTI government in the Supreme Court’s account on Bahria Town’s behalf instead. On the other hand, under the terms of its agreement, Bahria Town was supposed to make an initial deposit of Rs25bn by August 2019, and then equal instalments of Rs2.25bn each month for the next three years. By this calculation, it ought to have deposited at least Rs133bn into the Supreme Court’s account by the end of September 2022. It has paid less than half to date, and is now arguing that its liabilities were assessed wrongly and that it occupies less land than is deemed to be in its possession — even as the Sindh authorities say that it has, in fact, encroached upon more than 3,000 acres of excess land.

Despite Bahria Town’s glaring misdoings and the Supreme Court’s candid observances regarding the same, it is surprising that there is still no clarity on the developer’s fate. The money deposited with the Supreme Court is being disbursed, but while the funds from the UK rightfully belong to the federal government, handing over anything to the authorities in Sindh may trigger valid objections, especially when the court itself believes senior provincial officials acted in connivance with the developer throughout this mega scandal. In a way, this would be no different than the manner in which the UK funds were misappropriated to benefit Bahria Town. Instead, that money would be much better utilised compensating those who were dispossessed of their ancestral lands, many times forcibly, by Bahria Town and its facilitators. As for Bahria Town’s punishment and its implications for the real estate sector, it may well prove a litmus test for the new chief justice’s resolve.

Published in Dawn, November 25th, 2023