The Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered the demolition of illegally constructed chambers of lawyers in F-8 area of the federal capital, ordering them to clear the ground, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.
A three-member bench of the Supreme court headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Gulzar Ahmed dismissed the Islamabad Bar's plea and upheld the Islamabad High Court's (IHC) verdict in ordering the demolishing of the chambers.
Rejecting the lawyers' request for two-year time until they get an alternative place for chambers, the apex court maintained that all the lawyers' chambers set up at Football Ground are illegal, and no illegal activity can be justified.
“Anyone wants to practise build his office somewhere else,” the CJP remarked while ordering the administration to also raze to the ground the court built on the ground.
The chief judge asked lawyers counsel Hamid Khan why would not they demolish these chambers? “The lawyers have no legal right to the ground. If they want we can give them two months’ time to vacate the ground and hand it over to the administration.”
Hamid Khan said they wanted to clear the ground but also wanted the court to give them enough time to do so. “We will empty the chambers when the Islamabad High Court will be shifted to the Red Zone. We will clear them in one to two years,” he added.
The CJP swiftly shot down the proposal saying the court cannot sanction such a long time.
Justice Ijazul Ahsan said even if the lawyers’ chambers were built with administration’s nod they were illegal.
The court rejected lawyers’ plea to defer the demolition until they find an alternate to it and upheld the Islamabad High Court’s ruling.
During the previous hearing, the apex court had barred the Capital Development Authority from demolishing the chambers of the lawyers. The court had also issued notices to the attorney-general and advocate-general.
Following the demolition of illegal chambers in district and sessions court in Islamabad on February 8, lawyers had stormed into the IHC, attacked the Chief Justice Block and detained him as well as other judges for a couple of hours.