ISLAMABAD – The Supreme Court Tuesday has grilled Pakistan Army lawyer overthe Defence Housing Authority business.
SC has termed the agreements signed by the Defence Housing Authority (DHA)and the Eden Housing Society void.
A three-member SC bench headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Mian SaqibNisar, also directed the DHA to develop the 11,000 plots sold by the EdenHousing Society within five years to give some relief to the affectees.
The CJP said an implementation bench would be constituted to resolve thecase, and instructed all the suspects currently in the NationalAccountability Bureau’s (NAB) custody in connection with the case tocontact the relevant forums.
“I ask you, the army and everyone else this: Which country’s army operateshousing schemes?” the CJP asked the DHA counsel while criticising thearmy’s role in housing schemes.
As the hearing resumed after a brief adjournment earlier in the day, theDHA lawyer defended his client by arguing that it had limited involvementin the project.
“This was a 25,000-kanal project,” he said. “The DHA sold its name inexchange for 30 per cent of the total shares.”
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However, the chief justice was not satisfied. He asked the DHArepresentative: “Is it the army’s job to develop housing societies?”
“The army’s job is to protect the country’s borders; not to participate incommercial activities,” the judge said. “Had the DHA done this for ourmartyrs, it would have been [understandable].”
“Does any other country’s army do this?” he asked again.
“The Malaysian army is involved in housing schemes,” the DHA representativeoffered, to which the judge countered asking: “And have you modelled thearmy after just that one country?”
“It seems that you people [the DHA] run your business by using widows andmartyrs as a shield, and you pocket royalties [in their name],” JusticeNisar added.
