A (PLP)

This writ petition has been filed by a person who claims to be a non‑proprietor resident of a village in Sargodha District on the grievance that the provisions of Jinnah Abadis for Non‑Proprietors in Rural Areas Act, 1986 (Act III of 1986) are not being honestly implemented by local functionaries in keeping with the requirements of the Statute. It is being asserted by the petitioner's learned counsel that for one reason or the other persons who are neither entitled nor qualified to receive land for shelter have been accommodated and the eligible persons have been excluded through dubious devices.

2. I have examined the provisions of Act III of 1986 which has been pressed into service on behalf of the petitioner. The preamble and provisions of the Statute show that the Act aims at providing housing facilities to non‑proprietors in the rural areas of the Punjab and to provide for matters connected therewith or ancillary thereto. Learned counsel for the petitioner desires this Court to undertake adjudication of contentions being raised by the petitioner.

3. I have gives anxious consideration to the matter. The Statute ex facie appears to be an egalitarian measure designed to mitigate the hardship of roofless poor persons in the rural areas who are non‑proprietors. At the very outset, I must express my anxiety to eschew a path which may be instrumental in defeating the very purpose of legislation or repeating the tragic story of the settlement laws through involvement in unending spate of litigation or opening flood gates for corruption. 4. 1 sent for a learned Law Officer and Mr. S.M.Zubair, Additional advocate‑General, Punjab has appeared to assist.

5. I have drawn the attention of the learned counsel to section 10 of Act III of 1986 which reserves sufficient powers for the Provincial Government to ensure that the purposes of this law are achieved and that no, functionary under the Statute assumes a position to misuse or abuse his powers or to do anything contrary to law. For the benefit of the learned counsel, provisions of section 10 are being reproduced with advantage:‑‑ "

10. Power of the Government.‑‑(1) The Government may frame schemes and issue instructions consistent with this Act and rules framed thereunder, relating to all matters to which the provisions of this Act apply. (2) I the Government considers that anything done or intended to be done by or on behalf of any officer or authority exercising any powers under this Act is not in conformity with law or 's, in any way, against public interest, it may, by order, wash the proceedings, suspend the execution of any order, be prohibit the doing of anything proposed to be done or require such officer or authority to take such action as may e specified. (3) The Government may delegate any of its powers and functions under subsection (2) to any officer not below the rank of a commissioner. " 6. have directed the learned Law Officer to draw the attention of the government or other relevant quarters towards the desirability of invoking their statutory powers for the purposes that these have been conferred. This Court, indeed, enjoys wide powers and jurisdiction to redress the grievances and grant relief to the aggrieved persons depending upon the facts and circumstances of each case. The exercise of Constitutional power is dependent on non‑availability of another adequate alternate remedy. The Constitutional jurisdiction of the High Court is discretionary but I do not think the provisions of subsection (2) of section 10 are ceremonial powers. These powers relate to the rights of poor persons who can ill‑afford expensive litigation. It seems to me that in terms of section 10(2), the Government is obliged and indeed under a duty to remedy injustices and to take adequate and earnest measures to guard against dubious devices and machinations of the unscrupulous land grabbers designed to frustrate the very purpose of law.

7. I have accordingly burdened the learned Law Officer with the responsibility to bring home to the Provincial Government aced the other respondents the desirability of monitoring, at all level , the implementation of the egalitarian measure for relief to and help f the shelterless rural folks.

8. It would be a contradiction in terms and a negation of the very purpose of law to make the shelterless people run from pillar to post and in the process be caught up in a vicious circle of expensive litigation which would amount to the proverbial giving with one hand and taking it away with the other.

9. The learned Law Officer assures that the Provincial Government would spare no efforts to guard against .the evils like malpraptices, favouritism, nepotism and corruption creeping into the proceedings under the Statute out of which these proceedings arise.

10. In view of what has been observed above, I have directed the petitioner to invoke the powers under section 10 of Act III of 1986, and on being approached the respondent Government and its functionaries would be obliged to look into the allegations and to undo the wrong suffered by the poor petitioner or such like other persons.

11. I have for the reasons and purposes listed above, decided not to interfere on merits touching the allegations at the present juncture in exercise of the Constitutional jurisdiction by exercising judicial restraint in the interest of larger public good.

12. The writ petition is disposed of in the above terms. M. B. A./S‑334/L Order accordingly.