Unauthorized occupation: SC asks governments to get official residences vacated in three weeks

The Supreme Court on Tuesday granted three weeks' time to the provincial and federal governments to get the official residences occupied by the unauthorized persons vacated. A three-judge bench, headed by Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar, heard the suo motu case on the irregularities in allotment of the official residences by the federal and provincial governments.
Additional Attorney General Nayyar Rizvi informed the court that 190 houses in Islamabad have been vacated, while 200 flats in the federal capital are being occupied by police personnel. The Capital Development Authority has decided that these flats should be allotted to the police.
He informed that in Karachi 4,000 houses of the federal government have been taken back from the non-entitled persons living in them, but still 4,200 residences are to be vacated from unauthorized persons, adding the cases of 71 illegal occupants are pending in the civil courts.
The Chief Justice directed the registrar of the high court to form special benches to dispose of these cases in 15 days.
The Punjab Additional Advocate General informed that 20 houses of the provincial government have been vacated. One house is being occupied by a Navy officer, while 22 cases of illegal occupants are pending in the civil court.
AAG Sindh, Qazi Sheryar informed that 262 houses are in the custody of unauthorized persons.
The Chief Justice gave the Sindh government three weeks to get these houses vacated. He told the AAG Sindh if the provincial government fails to get them vacated then the chief secretary would have to appear before the court to explain why the houses could not be taken back from the non-entitled occupants.
The AAG Balochistan informed that 28 houses of Balochistan were allotted to the occupants on the directives of the provincial chief minister. The court expressed annoyance over the poorest performance of the Balochistan government and summoned its chief secretary on the next date to explain why the court order was not complied with.
The Chief Justice said that chief secretaries of the provinces would have to submit that the official residences have not been allowed to unauthorized persons. Later, the case was adjourned for an indefinite period.