ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Tuesday announced the much-awaited decision on a petition filed against encroachments on a football ground in F-8 and directed the Capital Development Authority (CDA) to retrieve the land from the lawyers and restore the playground by March 23.

“The federal government shall make arrangements for holding a football tournament amongst students of public schools on Pakistan Day - March 23, 2021 - to pay tributes to the greatest lawyer of the subcontinent and founder of the nation Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah,” ordered a four-member larger bench.

The bench, headed by Chief Justice Athar Minallah and comprising Justice Aamer Farooq, Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani and Justice Minagul Hassan Aurangzeb, issued the judgment in an open court.

Govt asked to arrange tournament among students on F-8 ground on March 23

The petition was filed by a local resident in 2018 as she was aggrieved by the encroachment on the multipurpose ground by enrolled advocates and occupants of the adjoining commercial buildings.

She had asserted in her petition that the citizens, particularly the youth, had been deprived of their right to enjoy benefits of the playground and thus constitutionally guaranteed fundamental rights had been breached.

The 16,061 square yards ground was developed to offer sports facilities to the general public. It includes facilities for playing football, squash, basketball and volleyball. The playground is situated next to a commercial area where the administration of the Islamabad Capital Territory had taken on rent private buildings more than four decades ago for establishing the district courts.

According to the written report submitted by the CDA to the court, the encroachments on the playground started in 2013. It said proceedings were initiated for removing the encroachments but restraining orders were issued by district courts.

The Islamabad District Bar had also filed a suit and secured a stay order that restrained the CDA from interfering with the construction of private chambers in the playground.

The stay orders were subsequently vacated by the IHC. The Supreme Court had also taken cognizance of the matter but it was still pending.

In 2017, the then office-bearers of the Islamabad District Bar allotted plots to some lawyers for construction of their chambers in the football ground. No permission or authorisation was obtained from the competent authorities.

The IHC observed: “The case in hand is definitely a classic example of erosion of the rule of law in the capital of the country and may be a tip of the iceberg and a reflection of a much wider phenomenon of malaise and erosion of rule of law in the society.”

The bench pointed out that Legal Practitioners and Bar Councils Act 1973 described a mechanism regarding conducting proceedings in case of professional misconduct and also prescribed the punishments.

It said “Illegal construction” is defined in the Zoning Regulations of 1992 as meaning construction carried out without the permission of the CDA and in contravention of rules and regulations or any laws for the time being enforced in the capital territory.

Those involved in the illegal construction or its facilitation have exposed themselves to criminal proceedings.”In the case in hand, no one has given any justification nor quoted a law empowering the Islamabad District Bar to make purported allotments on state land for the construction of private chambers. No one could show any law that creates a right for every enrolled advocate to have the facility of a ‘private chamber’,” the court order said.

The court observed that “the purported allotments made by the Islamabad District Bar in the playground or elsewhere were without lawful authority and jurisdiction.”

Likewise, advocates who accepted the purported illegal allotments had also no lawful justification to construct chambers on the state land.

The court ruled that the purported allotments made by the bar in the playground are illegal, void and without jurisdiction and authority. The court order offered an opportunity to the lawyers to leave the illegally built chambers in the playground by Feb 28 and asked the federal government and the CDA to “restore the playground for the use of the public before March 23, 2021.”The court also asked the Islamabad District Bar to submit proposals for construction of lawyers’ chambers on five acres allotted for it and expressed the hope that the federal government would complete the construction of a district courts complex by March 23, 2022.

Published in Dawn, February 17th, 2021