ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected a petition by declaring it infructuous moved by BNP (Pvt) Ltd in a case involving the multi-billion land originally meant for a hotel but later converted into an apartment complex called One Constitution Avenue.

Headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Umar Ata Bandial, a three-judge Supreme Court offered senior counsel Barrister Syed Ali Zafar – representing the private firm – to either withdraw the review petition or the court will dismiss it for being infructuous.

The CJP regretted that the petitioner had entered into the lease agreement with the Capital Development Authority (CDA), which it had partially complied with initially before entirely going back on the agreement.

Now the petitioner wanted to reduce the agreed amount of Rs17.5 billion it has to pay to the CDA to Rs10 billion which was not possible, the CJP regretted, adding the petitioner had earlier accepted changes in the agreement but now the earlier judgment of the court had been overtaken by the events and therefore the petitioner should follow the same.

Court says lease already terminated, nothing left to decide

At the outset, Advocate Munir Paracha, on behalf of the CDA, argued that the authority had already cancelled the lease agreement it signed with the private firm and had taken over the property.

The petitioner subsequently challenged the matter before the Islamabad High Court (IHC). Justice Ayesha A Malik observed that since the lease has already been terminated, therefore no cause of action was pending before the court and nothing was left for it to decide.

Justice Ijazul Ahsan, also a member of the bench, observed that since the petitioner has accepted the conditions of the agreement, therefore the court cannot re-open the matter.

Referring to the third party interest (residents of the apartments) who also appeared before the court, the bench asked them to pursue their remedy in accordance with the law i.e. they have to pursue their matters before the high court.

Ali Zafar contended that the auction of the property was done in an open and transparent manner and there was no objection from any quarter till date. To the contrary, the bidding process was upheld by IHC when it was challenged many years ago, but CDA had cancelled the lease deed illegally.

CDA had cancelled the lease of the 13.5-acre plot to private firm M/s BNP in July 2016 due to a number of violations and irregularities. Later, the IHC upheld the CDA’s move to take over the property but the apex court headed by then chief justice Saqib Nisar restored the lease in 2019, directing the private firm to pay CDA Rs17.5 billion.

In line with the 2019 verdict, the developer was supposed to deposit Rs17.5 billion in instalments over eight years. The company deposited the first instalment of Rs1.7 billion and later reneged on its commitment.

Later, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) in Feb 2023 directed the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to investigate the non-payment of the amount. The CDA again cancelled the lease of this plot in March, and now the matter is pending before the IHC.

Since the auction of the plot in 2005, the project ‘One Constitution Avenue’ launched by M/s BNP has been facing controversies. The CDA auctioned the 13.5 acres for Rs4.8 billion; it handed over the possession of the plot to the company after receiving only Rs800 million in the same year. By 2016-17, only Rs1.02 billion of the remaining amount was paid to the civic agency.

Published in Dawn, June 16th, 2023