Daily Times

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Saturday moved the Islamabad High Court (IHC) seeking its order to de-seal its central secretariat in the federal capital.

The Capital Development Authority (CDA) had Thursday demolished a portion of the PTI Central Secretariat over a “violation of building rules”, drawing strong condemnation from the former ruling party.

The CDA said that its anti-encroachment team launched an operation to eliminate illegal construction and encroachment. In response, the PTI voiced its concerns in the Senate and today, the party’s secretary general, Omar Ayub Khan, filed the petition and made secretary of interior, chief commissioner, CDA chairman, and IG Islamabad parties in the case. In his petition, the PTI leader said: “Neither any order nor any notice was ever served upon the petitioner, hence, the impugned act of the respondents is due to malafide intention, blackmailing, without due process of law and violation of principle of natural justice and also contrary to Article 4 and 10-A of the Constitution.”

The petitioner argued that PTI, through its members Arshad Dad and Naseem ur Rehman, purchased commercial plot Number 1-A situated at Shopping Centre, Sector G-8/4-2 from Sartaj Ali in 2020. It is pertinent to mention here that the CDA, following the operation, had said that encroachment by a “political party” was removed and added that the plot was allotted in the name of a person named Sartaj Ali. The petitioner termed the CDA’s operation illegal unlawful and the result of malafide, political victimisation and violation of fundamental rights.