Islamabad: The Supreme Court (SC) directed the Ministry of Housing and Works (MoH&W) on Wednesday (June 12) to vacate all illegally occupied state-owned properties in the federal capital, a news source reported. The apex court also directed the ministry to submit a report after completing the eviction process.
The SC two-member bench comprising Chief Justice of Pakistan Gulzar Ahmed and Justice Ijazul Ahsan gave this ruling while hearing the suo-moto case on illegal occupation of state properties in Pakistan. In this session, the court also reviewed a report submitted by the MoH&W, containing details on the number of state-owned properties the ministry had evicted so far. The court termed the report ‘dissatisfactory’.
Commenting on the situation, the Chief Justice said that many public servants who have their own houses in Islamabad have been allotted state properties in the capital, with many of them having also rented out these properties.
Responding to this, MoH&W Additional Secretary Zahoor Ahmed said that occupants of 52 houses in Islamabad have been evicted. He further said that the ministry set up 48 inspection teams to identify such properties which the allottees have rented out. The teams’ findings revealed that 116 state-owned houses have been sublet. Out of these, the ministry has evicted 31, houses and is currently in the process to retrieve the remaining, said the additional secretary.
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