Government offered Rs 3 crore worth plot to Justice Iftikhar on Aug 10

[Naveed Yaseen]

PCO judges, bureaucrats benefited from policy made by Musharraf

By Ansar Abbasi

ISLAMABAD: Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry has rejected the government’s offer of allotment of a residential plot worth Rs30 million in Islamabad, it is learnt.

GM Sikandar, former housing and works secretary and presently member of the federal services tribunal, told The News on Friday that in line with the government’s policy the housing ministry had issued an offer letter to the chief justice of Pakistan for the allotment of a 600 sq yard residential plot in I-8 Sector of Islamabad on August 10 this year but the same day the government had to cancel the allotment after Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry refused to accept it.

The housing ministry that had taken the initiative apparently to please the chief justice was given a dressing down and had to undo everything within hours.Sikandar confirmed that the ministry had also sought the list of other Supreme Court judges, who were to be provided the second residential plot in Islamabad in line with the official policy.

By surrendering his right protected under the stated government policy, Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry seems to have subtly rejected the plot politics of Pakistan, which enables a select few influential groups to get the lion’s share in state resources, leaving nothing for the poor and the needy.

Interestingly it was soon after the November 3, 2007 PCO of General Musharraf that the then ruling junta made the new policy whereby the judges of the Supreme Court were entitled to get two residential plots in Islamabad as was allowed to the federal secretaries and BS-22 officers of the federal government.

The immediate beneficiaries of the policy were all the five judges of the Supreme Court, who had taken oath under the PCO including Justice (retd) Abdul Hameed Dogar, Justice (retd) Nawaz Abbasi, Justice (retd) Faqir Muhammad Khokhar, Justice (retd) Javed Buttar and Justice (retd) Saeed Ashad. All these PCO judges were given additional residential plots within a few weeks of the November 3 episode.

Sources in the Federal Government Employees Housing Foundation (FGEHF) said that these PCO judges were even taken to D-12 sector to select the plots of their choice for their services to the dictator of the day.

A few weeks before November 3, 2007 the then Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry had taken suo moto notice of the government’s decision to allot two residential plots to federal secretaries in Islamabad. While issuing notices to all concerned, Justice Iftikhar had questioned how the government could distribute the state land to a select group like sweets. But before he could decide the case, Musharraf imposed his unconstitutional PCO following which the PCO judges took no time to dismiss the suo moto notice. Consequently, they too got the additional plots.

It could be anybody’s guess as to what was the motive behind the present government’s initiative to offer on its own a residential plot to Justice Iftikhar in the posh sector whereas all others were given plots in D-12 where the value of a plot is around Rs7 million.

Justice Iftikhar’s response even surprised the mandarins of the housing ministry and the FGEHF. The housing ministry documents show that on August 10, 2009, the ministry approached Registrar Supreme Court Dr Faqir Hussain with a provisional offer letter for the allotment of plot in I-8 sector to Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry. But within no time, the housing ministry got a response from the Registrar’s office, directing it to immediately withdraw the offer letter as the chief justice was not interested in the plot no matter what the government policy said.

The housing ministry immediately, the same day, got back to the Registrar informing him that the offer letter had been withdrawn as per direction of the Supreme Court. The ministry also submitted, “It is humbly clarified that the offer was made in pursuance of the package approved by the Prime Minister of Pakistan for BS-22 officers and the honourable Judges of the Supreme Court of Pakistan to remove the discrimination. Any embarrassment caused in this respect is deeply regretted.”

It might be a coincidence but the housing ministry issued the offer letter to the chief justice at a time when the Supreme Court is already seized with the suo moto case involving highly controversial allotments made by the present government through the FGEHF to a select class of bureaucrats, journalists and others.

The Supreme Court, which had referred the case to the government for an inquiry into these controversial allotments, has already been informed that most of these allotments, including those to government officials and journalists, were made in violation of the policy and in a non-transparent manner.

A senior housing ministry source said that the inquiry report also showed how a superior judiciary’s dismissal order of a writ petition seeking allotment of plots was used as a justification to make allotment of residential plots.

It should be mentioned here that in line with the government’s policy three of the Supreme Court judges who had re-joined the Supreme Court by accepting the Naek formula of re-appointment were also allotted plots in the D-12 sector last year.

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