Court seeks details of Grand Hyatt apartments’ allotment

ISLAMABAD: Justice Athar Minallah of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Monday directed the management of under construction Grand Hyatt hotel to submit details of allotments of its high rise apartments.

The court was hearing a petition filed by BNP (Private) Limited, the management of Grand Hyatt hotel and 23-storey residential towers, challenging the cancellation of lease by the Capital Development Authority (CDA).

Justice Minallah directed M/s BNP to provide names of the buyers, the amount each buyer had paid to the firm and how much apartments had been sold out.

The bona fide buyers included a former chief justice, Pakistan Tehirk-i-Insaf chairman Imran Khan, sons of former naval chief Noman Bashir and foreign secretary Salman Bashir and several other big-shots.

It is also said that an incumbent federal minister, relative of former senior legal adviser of the CDA and daughter of leading lawyer who is happened to be a senior politician of the country are among the lawyers.

M/s BNP will submit before the court exact details of all the buyers next week.

In July, the CDA cancelled the 99-year- lease of M/s BNP which was auctioned on March 9, 2005.

The CDA auctioned the 13.5-acre plot to the BNP Group for Rs4.88 billion, but its board handed over the possession of the plot to the buyer the same year after receiving only 15pc of the amount.

Initially, the building was allowed to be 718 feet tall but its height was reduced to 300 feet after objections raised by the Civil Aviation Authority.

During Monday’s hearing, Kashif Ali Malik, additional legal adviser to the CDA, adopted before the court that the civic body was the custodian of the land whereas the real owner of the disputed plot was the public at large.

He said the CDA had requested the National Accountability Bureau and the Federal Investigation Agency to investigate the auction of the plot to M/s BNP to fix criminal liabilities as the CDA officials had extended undue favors to the construction firm.

In May last year, during a Public Accounts Committee (PAC) meeting, its chairman Syed Khursheed Shah said CDA had given unprecedented favour to the hotel builder by handing over possession of the plot after receiving a meager amount.

The PAC chairman remarked that FIRs should be registered against the former chairmen as well as members of the CDA board for extending undue favors.

IHC will take up the case again on Jan 11.

Source: Dawn