A three-member bench of the apex court comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice Ghulam Rabbani and Justice Jawwad S Khawaja was hearing a suo motu notice taken on the applications of Citizens' Rights Forum Karachi and a citizen Mehfooz-un-Nabi against leasing out of a 4.9-acre Defence owned plot located in the Lines Area to Macro Habib, a private company, by the army authorities.
Advocate Mansoor Ali Shah appeared for the applicants. And the hearing of the case would resume today (Thursday). The applicants contended that the plot was leased out at very low rates to Macro Habib, which established a luxury super store, only meant for elite class.
He said it was a plot allocated for the training of army recruits and not a playground. However, another plot, adjacent to the leased out plot, was being managed for the recruits' training. It was not a public property instead owned by the Defence department, he added. The applicant contended that the children of elite class could utilise the benefits of leased out plot, adding where the children of poor would go?
Attorney General Sardar Latif Khosa appeared before the court on notice and informed the court that the plot was the property of Defence and was leased out by the army. The Chief Justice observed that the Defence property was not the property of any individual instead it was a public property, which could not be leased out at throwaway prices.
The Chief Justice remarked 'no army official including the chief of army staff has the authority to take any step contrary to the provisions of Trust Act'. Army is a public institution, which can be called by the civil administration to tackle any emergency, however in normal circumstances the army institution has no authority to interfere in civil matters.