ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad Bar Association (IBA) on Thursday approached the Supreme Court to seek reversal of its March 2 direction in which the Capital Development Authority (CDA) was given nod to demolish lawyer’s chambers on the football ground in Sector F-8 if not vacated within two months.

The review petition was moved on the grounds that the March 2 order of the apex court contains errors floating on the surface of the record, which went unnoticed like the Aug 24, 2007 order by a larger bench of the Supreme Court in which the shifting of the District court Islamabad premises from Sector F-8 to G-10 was stayed. Then the Supreme Court had postponed further hearing of the case for indefinite period.

The review petition has been signed by a number of senior lawyers like Sardar Latif Khosa, Hamid Khan, Syed Iqbal Hussain Shah Gillani, Haroonur Rashid, Mohammad Shoaib Shaheen, Sardar Shahbaz Ali Khan Khosa, and Malik Mohammad Amir.

The review petition pleaded that the Aug 24 order categorically establishes that the federal government and the authorities concerned had not only given a clear undertaking that the existing chambers of the lawyers and the Bar Room would not be dislodged unless facilities to the Bar were provided simultaneously with the shifting of the district courts Islamabad.

Even the PC-1 concerning chambers of the lawyers had been approved and funds of Rs109 million were likely to be released by or before June 30, 2009 by the CDA, after that the construction work was to be undertaken.

In view of the stated position, the lawyer’s chambers should have been constructed by now and the smooth transition in view of the solemn commitment before the highest judicial forum was binding on all courts and authorities, the review petition said.

Against this background, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) should not have passed its order on Feb 16, 2021 in which the high court had expected that as a gesture towards the actual stakeholders i.e. the general public, the members of the bar will clear the illegal construction and restore the playground for public use.

In case the playground is not restored, the federal government and CDA will restore the playground for the use of the public before March 23, 2021, the order had stated.

The petition pleaded that the errors pointed out and omissions and commissions to be argued at the bar were of immense fundamental importance and can be seen floating on the surface of the order under review.

Published in Dawn, April 9th, 2021