Commission on Irregular Housing Societies: Justice Azmat Saeed appointed chairman

ISLAMABAD: The Punjab government has appointed Justice (R) Azmat Saeed Sheikh as Chairman of Punjab Commission on Irregular Housing Societies in order to regularize more than 6,000 illegal housing societies in the entire province.

He will be paid a monthly salary equivalent to what he was drawing as a judge of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, according to a source privy to details. Other than the chairman, the commission will comprise four members. Two each are of town planning and legal background, it was further learnt. A summary moved in this respect named Waseem Ahmed Khan and Aslam Mughal as expert members of urban planning whereas Jawwad ul Hassan and Mubeen Uddin Qazi as legal experts of the commission.

Sheikh previously headed the Broadsheet Commission, which was set up to probe the execution of contract and payments to Broadsheet LLC in connection with the investigation into offshore assets of politicians and other targets given by NAB to Broadsheet. However, his main claim to fame was being part of the Panama Papers bench, which had disqualified Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

While the commission has come into existence, the provincial government is still working on the law in order to remove some anomalies. On the direction of the federal government, the Punjab government haphazardly promulgated “The Punjab Commission for Regularization of Irregular Housing Schemes Ordinance 2021” in April this year in order to regularize housing schemes but the entire process was carried out without proper consultation; even the relevant departments were not taken into confidence.

The ordinance was drafted in consultation with a key constitutional office-bearer of Punjab so as to avert any legal crisis should the legislation be challenged in any court of law. It was therefore decided that a retired judge of the Supreme Court of Pakistan or Lahore High Court would head the commission. The ordinance was further amended in August this year.

While the federal government wanted Azmat Saeed Sheikh to head the commission, constitutional office-bearers in Lahore had recommended the name of Justice (retd) Ali Akbar Qureshi, a retired judge of the Lahore High Court. But finally, Azmat Saeed Sheikh has been appointed. He suggested some changes in the ordinance. For example, he wants the word “irregular” removed from the title so that the law does not have a negative connotation. Other changes have also been suggested. Due to the foregoing, a summary has been routed through the provincial cabinet for the ratification ahead of the re-promulgation of the ordinance. The above-mentioned suggested changes seem to remain in place in the amended version.

When the ordinance was promulgated in April, the entire process was conducted in a hush-hush manner as government officials were forced to do it without much deliberation while a constitutional officer was instrumental in giving final touches to the draft and consent of the provincial cabinet was secured by circulating the draft.

Several ministers related to the subject matter opted to abstain from voting and their silence was thus considered as if the answer was in the affirmative. One minister had then told The News he didn’t receive any summary seeking his comment.

It has been promulgated in an apparent attempt to give a clean chit by levying two percent of residential value on the non-conforming use of land. “It is a kind of blank cheque at 2pc penalty,” said an official privy to the subject matter. According to him, there are more than 6,000 illegal housing societies; 1,500 of them fall in the purview of development authorities such as Lahore Development Authority, Rawalpindi Development Authority, Faisalabad Development Authority, Gujranwala Development Authority and Multan Development Authority, etc. Remaining are in the purview of district governments and municipal corporations.

If internal official correspondence is taken as a guide, the process was initiated by the Chief Minister Punjab, who is also the minister in-charge of local government, and supported by the federal government, which was so eager to see it translating into reality that the approval from cabinet was sought through the circulation of the draft as the update in this regard was “to be placed before the Prime Minister of Pakistan”.

It was promulgated through an ordinance because the Punjab Assembly wasn’t in session. This is despite the fact the issue of illegal housing society is old and any legislation in this respect could wait for the assembly to come into session.

A leading constitutional office-bearer, it has been learnt, gave final shape to the draft; although, it was the job of the executive branch.