The Supreme Court on Thursday directed the Chairman of the Capital Development Authority (CDA), Tahir Shahbaz, to take a personal interest to stop the misuse of agricultural farms for business purposes in the Federal Capital and directed him to restore the original status of the farms.
The court also directed the authority to take certain measures against farm owners, who are violating CDA's by-laws and prohibit misuse of agricultural lands for business purposes. A three-member bench, headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, resumed the hearing on a case on misuse of farms in the Federal Capital, remarked that the by-laws applicable for the construction of buildings on agro lands, had been amended to accommodate influential people who were misusing agricultural lands.
During the course of hearing, Munir Paracha, the counsel for the CDA, apprised the court that there were as many as 504 farms in the capital, but only 300 allottees were adhering to CDA by-laws. Informing the court about actions taken by the authority against violators, he said that CDA had cancelled ownerships of 10 allottees and as many as 27 had been fined, adding that CDA had issued show-cause notices to 87 allottees for not complying with the by-laws.
Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry stated that the authority was reluctant to reveal names of backers of allottees and directed the Chairman CDA to take action against violators without any discrimination. Meanwhile, a CDA representative apprised the court that rules allowed allottees to build only two rooms on their land, one for a manager and the other for security guards.
Khushnood Ali Khan, a farm owner, who is also a party in the case, apprised the court that some of the allottees had installed a tube-well for every 2.5 acres of land because of which the level of underground water was rapidly dropping in the area. The court directed the authority to provide it with rules and regulations for installing tube wells on farm lands, besides urging the authorities concerned to make the allottees follow the rules in this regard also. The court adjourned the case for three weeks.