ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed the Chairman Capital Development Authority (CDA) to make concerted efforts in order to stop misuse of agriculture farms for business purposes and directed him to take personal interest in this regard.
The directive was issued by the three-member bench comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice Gulzar Ahmad and Justice Sh Azmat Saeed during the hearing of misuse of agro farms in the Federal Capital.
The bench also directed the CDA for taking action against illegal allottees without any discrimination.
During the course of proceedings, the Chief Justice questioned as to why the construction area had been extended from 2,500 to 10,000 square feet without any justification in 20 kanal plots since 2004.
The bench observed that the CDA was also reluctant to take action against those, who had constructed three-storey buildings without any permission.
Meanwhile, Munir Paracha, counsel for the CDA, submitted a report regarding the actions taken by the authority in this regard. However, the court expressed its dissatisfaction and stated that the CDA was not taking effective steps to stop misuse of the agro farms.
The court also observed that without its intervention such practice could not be stopped.
Munir Paracha apprised the court that the department had also issued show cause notices to the allottees for their non-conforming use.
Malik Ghulam Murtaza, Deputy Director General CDA, apprised the court that he personally visited the location of agro farms and found that no marriage hall was there being used for business purposes. He, however, admitted that marriage ceremonies took place but not under commercial purposes.
Khushnood Ali Khan, a farm owner, requested for becoming a party in the case, which was accepted by the court.
Khushnood told the bench that the CDA in its contract had promised to provide subsidy on electricity but the IESCO was charging domestic rates. He further stated that the CDA also did not supply water to the farm houses, therefore they could not use land for agriculture purposes.
He, however, admitted that agro farms were still being used for commercial purposes.
A CDA officer also confessed that a few days ago, a farm was being used for a marriage ceremony but he could not confirm whether it was a commercial function.
Later, the court adjourned the case for three weeks.
Comments
Comments are closed.