RAWALPINDI: Awami Muslim League (AML) chief and former interior minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed’s ancestral residence, Lal Haveli, was sealed in the wee hours of Monday.
In a tweet, Rashid said that the residence was completely sealed in the dark of the night by the bloodthirsty who first shed blood of the government and now of Lal Haveli.
“The Rangers and FC [Frontier Corps] were asked for help but they refused. The Lal Haveli was then sealed with the help of FIA [Federal Investigation Agency] and police,” he claimed.
He furthered that the Lal Haveli, a residence of fewer than five marlas, is his personal property and the central secretariat of public service.
He announced that he will hold a press conference at his ancestral residence on the matter soon.
A heavy contingent of police and officers of the district administration were present while sealing the property.
The endowment department has sealed all its entrances with official locks and will start further legal action from today.
Asif Mehmood, the administrator of the Department of Abandoned Waqf Properties, said that the department has sealed seven units, including Lal Haveli, and has written to the authorities to confirm the registry of one unit of Rashid’s Rawalpindi residence. He maintained that Lal Haveli is government land that it has been illegally occupied for a long time.
Meanwhile, the former minister has decided to challenge the move in the Islamabad High Court (IHC) and lawyers have been ordered to prepare a petition and file a petition in the next two hours.
IHC Senior judge Justice Sadaqat Ali Khan will hear the petition requesting that the Lal Haveli be de-sealed.
AML leader’s lawyer Sardar Abdul Raziq said that the footage and photos of the sealing of Lal Haveli have been obtained.
A day earlier, a civil court in Rawalpindi had rejected Sheikh Rashid’s petition challenging orders to evacuate Lal Haveli.
However, Judge Naveed Akhtar said that the court could not stop any department from taking action under the law and the court postponed the hearing till Feb 15.
The AML chief had argued in his petition that the evacuation of Lal Haveli was political victimization as the case related to the property was already in litigation.
Rashid prayed in his plea that the Evacuee Trust Property Board be stopped from taking action that, he alleged, was a part of settling the score against him.