Allotment of government residences: Supreme Court tells ministry to adhere to merit

The Supreme Court on Monday directed the Ministry of Housing and Works and allied departments for strict adherence to merit on the basis of general waiting list meant for allotting government residences in future. A two-member of Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and Khilji Arif Hussain dismissed an individual civil petition filed against the order of Islamabad High Court, challenging another possessor of government residence in Islamabad.
Earlier, the SC has directed Kamran Lashari, Federal Secretary Ministry of Housing and Works to take action against those who were given official residence out of turn in Islamabad and get these houses vacated immediately. The judgement disclosed that thousands of employees were waiting for allotment of government accommodation since decades but the allotting authorities failed to respond to the applicants. However, those having connection with ministers or top bureaucracy were allotted residence the movement it is vacated and the practice has become rule of the day.
It has been observed in the judgement that Estate Office officials' irresponsible attitude and unnecessary delay in conclusion of pending cases pertaining to government residences before the courts of law, should monitored on fortnightly basis. While citing the petitioner's allotment case, the court observed that the Federal Mister for Housing and Works directed for the allotment of the house in question in favour of the petitioner without assigning any reason by a non speaking order.
It added that public functionaries are supposed to adhere to the principle of transparency in the performance of their duties and decline the implementation of illegal orders putting a dissenting note on the record. The judgement expressed that only in very exceptional circumstances the relaxation can be granted to accommodate a deserving government employee in public interest but for that too a justifiable reason has to be recorded by the concerned authority, adding that a colourful interpretation of the Accommodation Allocation Rules 2002 should not be done for obliging anybody.
The SC declared in the judgement, "Relaxation of rules under Rule 29A of the Accommodation Allocation Rules, 2002 will not be often exercised, except in the cases of hardship and that too by recording justifiable reasons for the same, after hearing the likely affected employees in the General Waiting List".