Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The civic body known as the Capital Development Authority (CDA) has decided not to defend its former chairmen and members before the division bench of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) in the case of the Grand Hayat Hotel. These officials were accused by the single member bench of the IHC for their regulatory negligence.

Furthermore, the management of the CDA has also accepted the “right of compensation” of purchasers as it has decided to not file an intra court appeal against those observations which were against the civic body.

Earlier in first week of March, the single member bench of the IHC had dismissed all applications, challenging the cancellation of the lease of the under-construction-multi-storey Grand Hayat Hotel by the CDA on July 29, 2016.

Justice Athar Minallah termed the CDA’s termination order of lease as ‘legal’, but ordered that the federal government and the authority were responsible to compensate all buyers and affected persons of Grand Hayat Hotel according to the rules and regulations.

Though, as a whole, the judgment was in favour of the civic body, but there were some points which were against the authority.

As for instance, the judgment categorically blamed the CDA for its regulatory negligence and even held its concerned chairmen and every member of the board for jointly and severely responsible for any loss caused on account of their failure or negligence.

On the other side the judgment repeatedly accused the CDA for losses incurred by the purchasers and bound the authority and the federal government to protect the rights of the purchasers as per rules and regulations.

Instead of challenging these negative observations of the CDA, the incumbent management of the civic body has decided to not go into the IHC to file an appeal against aforementioned points, but some circles close to the developments in this case believe that by doing this the authority is itself taking a back step.

The policy to adopt silence up to the extent of “purchaser’s rights” is being considered as a move to favour the third parties as by doing this the authority cuffed its hands and accepted that it was completely negligent and bound to compensate the buyers while in the past the authority was of the view that the purchasers were responsible as they made the investment on their own without asking the CDA about the project.

“If the authority has accepted the negligence of the former chairmen CDA and the Board Members then what is the purpose of an inquiry, which is under way in the authority to fix the responsibility in this case”, an officer of the authority questioned rhetorically.

While responding on the issue, the Legal Counsel CDA, Kashif Malik, who has defended this case quite wisely and with full dedication before the single bench of the IHC said: “I had already communicated these points in writing to the higher ups for consideration in the CDA board, but the final decision to file an intra court appeal or not is a prerogative of the client and not the lawyer.”

When contacted the Mayor of Islamabad and Chairman CDA Shaik Ansar Aziz, he said: “The aggrieved party in the recent judgment was petitioners and we don’t want to give an impression that the decision is against us.”

“Yes, we accepted our negligence and the responsible elements within the CDA should be punished as we will not defend them anymore”, he added.

It is pertinent to mention that the ex-chairmen CDA Kamran Lashari, Syed Thair Shahbaz, Ex Board Members Brigadier Asad, Brigadier Bokhari, Brigadier Nusartullah, Azher Ali Choudhary, Munir Chaudhry, Shaista Sohail, Mustafain Kazmi, Sanaullah Aman and former Directors PMO Directorate Dr Faisal Awan, Humayun Toru were the officers directly dealing with the said case while former Directors Estate Management Directorate, Habibur-Rehman Gillani and Chaudhry Aslam, were used just to sign the allotment letters and lease agreements.