Islamabad-Chief Justice of Pakistan on Monday took notice of lawyers’ encroachment of football ground in F-8, Islamabad

The chief justice took notice on reports that a public park/football ground had been encroached by lawyers of associated with Islamabad Bar Council serving in the nearby district courts’ complex in F-8 sector. The chief justice directed chairman Capital Development Authority (CDA) to file report in this regard within three days.

The Nation carried a detailed story on lawyers’ advancement in the public facility in December 2017. The report stated that a part of the playground had already been occupied by the lawyers.

The lawyers had been constructing their chambers on the land of the ground since February 2013, but the civic body failed to prevent them from encroaching upon the state land. When the locals and traders objected and resisted the lawyers, they got stay from a court, which prevented the CDA and local government authorities from creating any hurdles in construction of the temporary chambers.

The residents of Park Road are concerned over the situation after fresh construction was planned on remaining portion of the ground. They had appealed to Supreme Court to intervene in the matter to protect the facility for their children from encroachment.

Recently, the CDA planned to carry out an operation against the illegal constructions but the action was put off, ostensibly under pressure from the legal community.

In December 2017, a resident Ahmad Jamal told The Nation that they had raised the issue with the mayor, chief officer of the Metropolitan Corporation Islamabad (MCI) and other concerned officials, but to no avail.

The lawyers started encroaching upon part of the ground in 2013. At that time, the traders resisted the move, resulting in a quarrel which resulted in both the groups lodging separate FIRs against each other. However, the lawyers managed to proceed with constructing their chambers. The lawyers maintain that it is the government’s responsibility to provide them land for construction of chambers. They said that they had taken up the matter with concerned authorities several times but they were paying no heed to their demands.