The Supreme Court of Pakistan on Monday restrained Bahria Town, a leading real estate development firm, and in a special sense an important nucleus of economic progress of this country, from undertaking any development activity on the state land allotted to it by the Malir Development Authority (MDA) allegedly illegally, and gave two months to the NAB to complete its investigation into the matter.
A two-judge bench comprising Justice Amir Hani Muslim and Mushir Alam gave these directions at the Court’s Karachi Registry while hearing a set of applications against allegedly illegal allotment of the state land, and adjustment of land in 43 Dehs by the MDA.
This whole affair to me gives the stink of a war of vested interests in which Judiciary is being used as a tool of combat.
The ultimate losers in this war between the mighty and the powerful are going to be those innocent citizens of this country who have invested their resources, dreams and hopes in what seemingly is the country’s most ambitious and visibly most credible town-planning project in the country’s history.
I have greatest respect for the Country’s Judiciary, but to regard humans as flawless characters, and incapable of erring and of making wrong judgments is a blasphemy by itself. Only Allah the All-Knowing is beyond error, and all His creatures are vulnerable to their limitations and weaknesses.
This judgment may be simply flawless on legal merit, but can have disastrous consequences on the lives of thousands and thousands of families who have invested practically their ‘lives’ on this project.
The judgment has also unintentionally opened the floodgates of corruption, as the NAB is not known for its exemplary integrity. It is an Accountability organisation that will almost surely fail in the Accountability test in the eyes of history.
We can only pray that those whom Allah has given authority over lives, do never fail in exercising their authority judiciously, justly and honestly.
