Withdrawal of allotment of accommodations: 33 judges move IHC, against government's notification

Thirty-three judges from lower judiciary of Islamabad on Monday filed a petition in Islamabad High Court challenging the government's notification to withdraw the allotment of government accommodation to them.
The petitioners approached the court through Babar Saeed Advocate and made federation through Secretary Housing and Works, Miraj Muhammad Khan, section officer (Policy), Ministry of Housing, and Estate Office as respondents.
In their petition, they stated that petitioners are judicial officers at Islamabad and are eligible and entitled for allotment of government accommodation. The petitioners added that they were allotted government accommodation as per their entitlement and possession of said accommodation were handed over to them and house rent allowance is also being deducted from their monthly salary.
They adopted that the petitioners are legal and lawful allottees of the accommodations. But, they told the court that on March 28, the respondents without any reason or justification issued a notification whereby the eligibility of the judicial officers for allotment of government accommodation was withdrawn.
They contended that it is the basic principle that all the stakeholders are taken into confidence, however, before issuing impugned notification, no such exercise was undertaken.
The petitioners argued that the said notification, issued under Rule 28 of AAR, however, does not give any such right to the respondents to issue any such notification, hence, impugned notification was issued in excess of legal authority of Estate Office.
They maintained that necessary legal and procedural requirements and other conditions precedent for issuance of notification have not been met before issuance of impugned notification, thus the same is illegal, unlawful and unjustified.
Therefore, the petitioner judges prayed to the court to accept their petition and the said impugned notification may kindly be declared illegal, void ab initio, ultra vires and issued without any lawful authority, consequently the same is ineffective qua the rights of the petitioners.
They further requested that the respondents may be permanently restrained from taking any action, prejudicial to the interests and rights of the petitioners, in continuation of impugned notification.