February
7, 2008 Supreme Court
Legalizes Pakistani Elite's Country Villas
Islamabad
The Pakistan Supreme Court has let off the hook some 500 individuals
including President Pervez Musharraf and former prime minister
Shaukat Aziz who had been accused of misusing farmland for
constructing country villas.
"After six months of unstoppable tension, these 499 owners of big
farm houses, worth over Rs.75 billion, have finally something to
cheer about because they have been cleared of misusing farmlands for
their residences," The News reported Thursday.
The report was headlined "Rich, powerful farm owners get relief from
SC".
At issue was the area earmarked in the Chak Shahzad neighbourhood on
the capital's outskirts as farmland. The Supreme Court had initiated
proceedings last year to find out how 499 members of Pakistan's
elite had purchased this land at ridiculously low rates from the
original owners to construct sprawling country villas.
According to Attorney General Malik Qayyum, the Supreme Court had
now closed the proceedings "as the issue does not relate to the
court".
The court observed that the issue did not warrant any intervention
on its part, as there were other institutions like the Capital
Development Authority (CDA) to deal with this.
Qayyum said the court had also observed that the CDA had allotted
the land in hilly areas where the availability of water was a big
problem.
A Supreme Court bench headed by deposed chief justice Iftikhar
Mohammad Chaudhry had last year begun proceedings on its own on the
issue. It had also questioned the CDA on permitting country villas
to be constructed on land that was meant for farming.
During the court proceedings before the emergency was declared Nov
3, it had emerged that the 499 powerful owners had a total of 2,500
acres of prime land worth about Rs.75 billion.
The court proceedings, "according to many observers, was one of the
causes of the removal from office of the ex-chief justice as his
action had offended these top guns sitting in the Shaukat Aziz
government", The News said.
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