Exceeding authority

A three-member bench of the Supreme Court has taken up the matter of the Defence Housing Authority expanding its boundaries without any other authority to check this and asked the attorney general for Pakistan and provincial law officers to look into laws which pertain to the authority. The court was hearing a petition regarding the alleged acquisition of 156 kanals of land illegally by the DHA after handing over Rs920 million to a person who did not hold the title for the land. Since then, the authority has apparently attempted to allot the land to others without explaining it did not hold the title. This is deeply disturbing. The court has also asked why the DHA exists at all, given the existence of the Army Welfare Trust. The body was set up after the Lahore Cantonment Cooperative Housing Society re-established itself as the DHA in 1999. The court has asked that both the DHA Ordinance 1999 and the Chief Executive Order of 2002, which allowed it to extend into other cities, be looked into. Lawyers for the petitioner have argued that the DHA attempted to prevent others from developing land and had ignored court orders regarding the 156 acres it possessed illegally. It was also pointed out that essentially serving officers are not allowed to engage themselves in any commercial activity, whereas this has been happening in the case of the DHA. The court has also pointed out that almost half of Lahore now falls under the DHA and its laws.
This issue has come up before but rarely been questioned in earnest. As the court and the petitioners have pointed out, it is perhaps time to do so. Essentially, schemes run by the military in housing and land development are intended to help the widows and orphans of martyrs. In the case of the DHA, the activity is however essentially commercial and involves millions of rupees in profit. In Lahore, DHA land is already among the most expensive in the city. The court feels that the authority cannot act as the absolute law regarding its own matters and decide what piece of territory to acquire next, and that there needs to be some check on this and also on the running of similar bodies. Things appear to have gone a little out of hand. It is time senior military officials also looked into the matter and found a way to bring them back in order. As was said during the hearing, the actions of the DHA are also bringing the army into disrepute and this is not something any of us would want given the significance of the armed forces to our land and the place of respect they hold. It is essential then that not only federal and provincial law officers but also the relevant military wings inquire into the affairs of the DHA and investigate all allegations of wrongdoing.