SC orders Bahria Town and Malir Development Authority’s accounts to be unfrozen

The Supreme Court on Friday ordered that Bahria Town and Malir Development Authority’s (MDA) accounts all over the country be unfrozen, clarifying its previous orders.

Bahria Town counsel Aitzaz Ahsan, who had filed the miscellaneous petition on Thursday, told a three-member SC bench today that private banks all over the country have sealed his client’s accounts on the orders of the State Bank of Pakistan.

“Due to accounts being sealed, the release of Bahria Town employees’ salaries and other development work has ceased,” the counsel said. “Malir Development Authority’s accounts have also been frozen.”

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At this, Chief Justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar, who was heading the SC bench, clarified that the court had only ordered “the monitoring of two accounts”, adding that “the FIA exceeds its authority.”

“We had said the same regarding the school case,” the top judge recalled. “We had passed orders regarding 27 schools and they started sealing schools.”

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Justice Nisar also asked Ahsan why his client had “still not changed Bahria’s name despite court orders?”

“A period of six months was given for that,” the counsel replied.

“Those six months have still not lapsed?” the judge asked, to which Ahsan simply said: “Sir, the renaming process is underway.”

“I so wish that I change Bahria Town’s name right now,” Justice Nisar said.

It is pertinent to mention here that in March 2015 a court in Rawalpindi had restrained the Bahria town CEO Malik Riaz from using the name ‘Bahria’ for his housing society. In August 2018, the magnate had received another blow after the sessions court of Rawalpindi rejected his appeal seeking the nomenclature.