The Supreme Court was surprised by how agricultural land in Rawalpindi was turned into a housing society, breaking many rules.
This happened about twenty years ago when the Revenue Employees Cooperative Housing Ltd (RECHS) got a huge piece of land, which was later given to Bahria Town Ltd (BTL), and then to the Defence Housing Authority (DHA). What bothered the court most was that this process didn’t follow the laws properly.
Former Punjab minister Malik Mohammad Anwar disagreed with this land transfer, but the chief minister didn’t listen to him. The court questioned why farmland was being used for houses and businesses instead of farming. It asked Bahria Town and DHA to explain this.
It turned out that the agreement between Bahria Town and RECHS wasn’t done correctly. The RECHS administrator didn’t have the power to make such deals, and the chief minister couldn’t ignore objections. But they did it anyway, even though the agreement wasn’t done correctly.
The Chief Justice of Pakistan, Qazi Faez Isa, was worried that too much farmland was being used for buildings, making it hard for regular people to afford homes. He said the government should focus on keeping farmland for farming, to make sure we have enough food. He warned that the court will step in if the government doesn’t fix this.
CJP Isa also noticed that powerful builders seem to have more say than regular people. He said we need to plan for the future, remembering that Pakistan used to export wheat but now imports it, which is not good for food security.
Even though the court doesn’t want to tell the government what to do, it wants to remind them to take care of our farmland and make fair decisions for everyone.