Pakistan’s Constitution doesn’t recommend plots for judges & personnel of armed forces

By Our Staff Reporter


The Supreme Court’s senior judge noted that neither the Pakistan Constitution nor any statute entitles judges or senior members of the armed forces to obtain residential or commercial plots.

Justice Qazi Faez Isa wrote the observation in an additional note in a thorough judgment given on Thursday by a four-member bench in the case relating to the acquisition of land for a housing project by the Capital Development Authority (CDA) and the Federal Government Employees Housing Foundation for Government employees.

The bench set aside the September 9, 2018 verdict of the Islamabad High Court which had scrapped the federal government’s housing scheme in sectors F-14 and F-15 in Islamabad, the Dawn newspaper reported.

Justice Isa explained that the Constitution and the law (presidential orders) did not entitle chief justices and judges of the superior courts to receive plots or pieces of land.

He said that though different laws governed those employed in the armed forces, they too don’t provide that the person be given residential plots, commercial plots, or agricultural land nor they are permitted to receive the same.

Nevertheless, senior members of the armed forces get plots and agricultural lands and continue to be given additional plots and agricultural lands as they rise up the ranks,’ he regretted. Justice Isa observed that the Constitution determined the terms and conditions of service of superior court judges and nothing could be subtracted therefrom or added thereto, the Dawn report said.



Since the stipulated terms and conditions did not entitle judges to receive plots, they were not entitled to receive plots from the foundation or out of any compulsorily acquired land, he said.