Musharraf, Aziz may lose plush farmhouses after SC order

Chaudhry, who has been at the centre of a confrontation between the judiciary and Musharraf since the military ruler tried to remove the chief justice in March, issued the order in connection with a case that an apex court bench had taken up suo motu this year on the increase in prices of vegetables and poultry products.

The order is likely to affect the ownership of farmhouses in the suburbs of Islamabad that are spread over 2,500 acres and worth billions of rupees, The News reported on Wednesday, quoting documents filed in the apex court by the CDA.

The CDA has submitted to the apex court a list of 499 people who currently own lands that were allotted at throwaway prices for meeting the rising demand for vegetables, fruits and poultry in the twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad.

The paper said a CDA official had claimed the farmhouses of Musharraf and Aziz “fall in the category of those farms which are not being used for the production of poultry and vegetables for which they were originally allotted”.

The President purchased a five-acre plot in 2003 from a woman who had acquired the land to start a poultry and vegetable business, while Aziz bought a 2.6-acre plot in the same year, the report said.