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Tuesday March 19, 2024

Pakpattan shrine land case: SC summons Nawaz Sharif

The apex court has summoned the former premier on December 4 regarding the case of the illegal construction on the land of Pakpattan’s shrine when he was the chief minister (CM) of Punjab.

By Web Desk
November 14, 2018

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court (SC) on Tuesday ordered PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif to appear before it in person regarding the suo motu case pertaining to the illegal construction of shops on the land of Pakpattan’s shrine in 1985 .

A three-member bench of the SC headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Mian Saqib Nisar has summoned the former premier on December 4 regarding the case of the illegal construction on the land of Pakpattan’s shrine when he was the chief minister (CM) of Punjab.

As per details, The Supreme Court questioned that under which law permission was granted to construct stores on the Auqaf Department’s land. The apex court added that then Punjab chief minister Nawaz Sharif withdrew the notification of the allotment of land of the Pakpattan shrine.

Sharif’s counsel Barrister Duggal submitted a concise statement saying that Nawaz Sharif had not signed any summary relating to the return of the shrine’s land during his tenure as Punjab CM. He requested the court to discharge his client’s name from the case, adding that Nawaz had nothing to do with the executive order of 1986 under which Auqaf Department Lahore returned a chunk of land to Sajada Nasheen of Baba Farid Ganj Shakar’s shrine. 

The chief justice repeatedly asked Duggal whether they were talking about the same Nawaz Sharif who served as the country’s prime minister thrice.

The CJP said that if Nawaz Sharif had not signed the executive order then someone has deceived him, making it a case of forgery. He also turned down Duggal’s request for the withdrawal of his client’s name from the notice list.

During his visit to the Baba Farid shrine earlier in August, Chief Justice Saqib Nisar had promised justice to dozens of protesters, who sought ownership rights of the land they purchased from the Dewans, the caretakers of the shrine, during the last 70 years.

However, the Dewans claim that they had been declared caretakers of 14,500 kanals land of Baba Farid’s shrine even though the Auqaf Department says that the shrine caretakers had no right to sell the land as it was not their jurisdiction to sell ownership rights of the land associated with the shrine since centuries.