In a landmark verdict, a five-judge bench of Balochistan High Court headed by Chief Justice Jamal Mandokhel declared on Wednesday that the army-run Defence Housing Authority’s (DHA) land acquiring spree in Quetta and other districts of the province is unconstitutional and null and void.
The case arose when the executive board of the DHA Quetta notified a huge area of about 45,000 acres for acquiring calling it ‘Controlled and Specified,’ reportedly for setting up another DHA near the Kuchlak bypass in the outskirts of Quetta.
‘Controlled areas’ under the DHA Quetta Act consist of “lands that may be procured, purchased or acquired by, or leased to the [DHA] Authority in any area of Quetta and other Districts of Balochistan, as may be notified by the Authority.” It allowed DHA Quetta to merely issue a notification naming a certain area anywhere in the province and acquiring the same.
Besides powers to acquire land, the DHA was vested with powers to stop any local body from making development schemes for the notified area. “No master plan, planning or development scheme shall be prepared by any local body or agency for the specified area without prior consultation with, and approval of the [DHA] Executive Board.” It was like conquering Balochistan and placing it at the disposal of DHA Quetta.
Declaring the requirement of permission from DHA as illegal, the court also said that the provincial government which vested these powers in the private body in 2015 was incompetent.
The court held that DHA was a private entity and so it can’t acquire land under the Land Acquisition Act. “Hence, imposing restriction upon the right of a citizen, guaranteed by the Constitution, for the purpose of acquiring land in future, for a single private entity, is illegal,” the court said.
The DHAs are unlikely to give up their desperate bid to acquire more and more land anywhere from Khyber to Karachi. It is highly unlikely that DHA Quetta will not seek to circumvent the BHC verdict by any device it can lay its hands upon. However, one must be thankful to the petitioners, namely Advocate Kashif Kakar and Barrister Ali Zaidi as well as to the BHC for calling out the DHA. It will not end but may at least slow down the apportioning of lands like a melon among military officers.
If the phrase “apportioning like melon” sounds a bit harsh, consider the following: the DHAs had all along kept secret how the plots were allotted. It was only through a parliamentary question sometime back that it was learned that army officers were allotted as many as four plots during their career. The first plot is allotted after 15 years, followed by a second one after 25 years, a third one after 28 years and a fourth one after 33 years of service. This was sometime back. The latest position is not known to the present writer.
In reply to the question, it also transpired then that retired army officers are also entitled to get plots in DHA Islamabad but retired Navy and PAF officers were not. A serving army officer was entitled after 15 years of service but a serving navy and air force officer was entitled only after 25 years of service. If such discrimination caused some heart burn, no one seemed to care.
The quota for civilians, public representatives, journalists and other non-defence categories in the DHA Islamabad was negligible. This information, however, was not made public. If the non-defense categories of applicants had been informed, many would not even consider applying for a plot as each applicant is required to pay a hefty non-refundable registration fee. Huge sums were collected as non-refundable registration fee from the civilians. It is hard to avoid the suspicion that information about the quota was deliberately kept secret.
Meanwhile, the number of DHAs proliferated. There was only one DHA in Karachi for nearly three decades. It was set up through a martial law order by General Zia by illegally taking over a private housing body. The order was never brought before the parliament. Instead, General Zia gave his order constitutional protection so that it could be changed by the parliament only by amending the Constitution - an almost impossible feat
General Musharraf added two more DHAs in Lahore and Islamabad. DHA Lahore was set up through a Presidential Order issued by him in October 2002 following the precedence of DHA Karachi by taking over a private housing society. This order also never came before the parliament.
DHA Islamabad was set up in February 2005 through an ordinance. About the manner in which it was got approved by the parliament the less said the better.
Strong voices were raised at the time in the parliament against blatant manipulations for providing fig leaf of legal cover to DHAs. Though not heeded, the voices revealed a lot about Pakistan’s largest real estate developer as some startling disclosures were made. As many as 18 questions were submitted in the parliament. These questions remain unanswered till today as the numbers of DHAs have proliferated to eight.
The BHC declared the then provincial government as ‘incompetent.’ But worse than a provincial government’s incompetence is how governments and parliaments have been manipulated to get DHA-related legislations passed. The verbatim record of parliamentary proceedings may provide some clues to investigative journalists and researchers.
The writer is a former senator
The case arose when the executive board of the DHA Quetta notified a huge area of about 45,000 acres for acquiring calling it ‘Controlled and Specified,’ reportedly for setting up another DHA near the Kuchlak bypass in the outskirts of Quetta.
‘Controlled areas’ under the DHA Quetta Act consist of “lands that may be procured, purchased or acquired by, or leased to the [DHA] Authority in any area of Quetta and other Districts of Balochistan, as may be notified by the Authority.” It allowed DHA Quetta to merely issue a notification naming a certain area anywhere in the province and acquiring the same.
Besides powers to acquire land, the DHA was vested with powers to stop any local body from making development schemes for the notified area. “No master plan, planning or development scheme shall be prepared by any local body or agency for the specified area without prior consultation with, and approval of the [DHA] Executive Board.” It was like conquering Balochistan and placing it at the disposal of DHA Quetta.
Declaring the requirement of permission from DHA as illegal, the court also said that the provincial government which vested these powers in the private body in 2015 was incompetent.
The court held that DHA was a private entity and so it can’t acquire land under the Land Acquisition Act. “Hence, imposing restriction upon the right of a citizen, guaranteed by the Constitution, for the purpose of acquiring land in future, for a single private entity, is illegal,” the court said.
The DHAs are unlikely to give up their desperate bid to acquire more and more land anywhere from Khyber to Karachi. It is highly unlikely that DHA Quetta will not seek to circumvent the BHC verdict by any device it can lay its hands upon. However, one must be thankful to the petitioners, namely Advocate Kashif Kakar and Barrister Ali Zaidi as well as to the BHC for calling out the DHA. It will not end but may at least slow down the apportioning of lands like a melon among military officers.
The DHAs are unlikely to give up their desperate bid to acquire more and more land anywhere from Khyber to Karachi
If the phrase “apportioning like melon” sounds a bit harsh, consider the following: the DHAs had all along kept secret how the plots were allotted. It was only through a parliamentary question sometime back that it was learned that army officers were allotted as many as four plots during their career. The first plot is allotted after 15 years, followed by a second one after 25 years, a third one after 28 years and a fourth one after 33 years of service. This was sometime back. The latest position is not known to the present writer.
In reply to the question, it also transpired then that retired army officers are also entitled to get plots in DHA Islamabad but retired Navy and PAF officers were not. A serving army officer was entitled after 15 years of service but a serving navy and air force officer was entitled only after 25 years of service. If such discrimination caused some heart burn, no one seemed to care.
The quota for civilians, public representatives, journalists and other non-defence categories in the DHA Islamabad was negligible. This information, however, was not made public. If the non-defense categories of applicants had been informed, many would not even consider applying for a plot as each applicant is required to pay a hefty non-refundable registration fee. Huge sums were collected as non-refundable registration fee from the civilians. It is hard to avoid the suspicion that information about the quota was deliberately kept secret.
Meanwhile, the number of DHAs proliferated. There was only one DHA in Karachi for nearly three decades. It was set up through a martial law order by General Zia by illegally taking over a private housing body. The order was never brought before the parliament. Instead, General Zia gave his order constitutional protection so that it could be changed by the parliament only by amending the Constitution - an almost impossible feat
General Musharraf added two more DHAs in Lahore and Islamabad. DHA Lahore was set up through a Presidential Order issued by him in October 2002 following the precedence of DHA Karachi by taking over a private housing society. This order also never came before the parliament.
DHA Islamabad was set up in February 2005 through an ordinance. About the manner in which it was got approved by the parliament the less said the better.
Strong voices were raised at the time in the parliament against blatant manipulations for providing fig leaf of legal cover to DHAs. Though not heeded, the voices revealed a lot about Pakistan’s largest real estate developer as some startling disclosures were made. As many as 18 questions were submitted in the parliament. These questions remain unanswered till today as the numbers of DHAs have proliferated to eight.
The BHC declared the then provincial government as ‘incompetent.’ But worse than a provincial government’s incompetence is how governments and parliaments have been manipulated to get DHA-related legislations passed. The verbatim record of parliamentary proceedings may provide some clues to investigative journalists and researchers.
The writer is a former senator