PHC suspends notification cancelling official residence allotment

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Friday suspended a notification about cancellation of official residence given under a new law of the KP government introduced for out-of-turn allotment of official residences.

A two-member bench comprising Justice Syed Afsar Shah and Justice Muhammad Ayub Khan also put on notice the provincial government to submit comments in a writ petition challenging the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Provincial Buildings (Management, Control and Allotment) Act 2018.

The bench suspended the cancellation of the allotted house to Pir Muhammad, who had got it in 2003.

During hearing, the petitioner’s lawyer Amjad Hussain Tanoli submitted that the Peshawar High Court on December 20, last year had ordered the cancellation all out-of-turn allotments but the respondents enacted the law in contravention of the judgment.

He submitted the petitioner, being a citizen of Pakistan and a civil servant, had also filed an appeal before the appellate authority as an alternative remedy, but in vain.

In the grounds to the petition, it was stated that the statutory procedure prescribed for the legislation had not been followed.

It said the impugned Act was in conflict with the parent law, especially with regards to equal treatment and right to have access to judicial proceedings.

“Section 7 of the impugned Act is an attempt to override a judgment given by the high court order in writ petition No.1503/2011 dated 20-09-2017,” the petition stated.

The petitioner requested that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Provincial Building (Management, Control and Allotment) Act, 2018 and rules made in consequence of the Act may be declared to have been made without lawful authority and of no legal effect.

It said the law was enacted in violation of the Constitution and ratio of judgments of apex courts.

In alternate, multiple provisions of Act of 2018 including section 7, 10 and 13 may kindly be struck down being ultra vires to Article 2-A, 3, 4, 9, 23, 24, 25 and 175 to the Constitution and in violation of case laws laid down by the superior courts.

It said section 7 and 13 of the provincial building control Act amounted to usurpation of judicial powers by the legislature.

It added that the provincial legislature went beyond the scope of its law-making while enacting the impugned legislation, aimed at barring the citizen from approaching the court for redress of their grievance and to make allotments to blue-eyed people.