The Bank of Punjab and several flat owners have challenged an Islamabad High Court ruling that upheld the cancellation of the One Constitution Avenue lease. The appeals also seek protection against coercive action by the CDA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
ISLAMABAD: The Bank of Punjab and several apartment owners in Islamabad\u2019s One Constitution Avenue project have filed separate intra-court appeals in the Islamabad High Court against a single bench ruling that upheld the cancellation of the project\u2019s lease.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The appeals relate to the court\u2019s April 30, 2026 decision in which a single-member bench dismissed a petition filed by builder M\/s BNP (Private) Limited, the original lessee of the project, and maintained the Capital Development Authority\u2019s decision to terminate the lease over alleged multi-billion-rupee payment defaults.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The project is spread over 13.5 acres and is located at the end of Constitution Avenue next to the Convention Centre. The latest appeals mark another development in the long-running legal dispute surrounding the commercial-residential scheme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The single bench, headed by the chief justice, rejected BNP Company\u2019s plea and restored the lease cancellation order. It also held that third-party sub-lessees and purchasers would sink or sail with BNP, meaning their rights were tied to the interest of the original lessee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Bank of Punjab has asked the divisional bench to set aside the single bench decision, arguing that the ruling is unlawful and inconsistent with the facts of the case. However, the Registrar\u2019s Office has raised objections regarding the maintainability of the bank\u2019s appeal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In its petition, the bank said it is directly affected because BNP Company had obtained a loan from the Bank of Punjab and later paid the amount to the CDA. According to documents available with Dawn, the bank had acquired three floors in the project on sub-lease for the establishment of a branch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The space acquired for the bank measures 25,420 square feet. The allotted area includes the lower ground, upper ground and first floors of One Constitution Avenue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Separate appeals have also been filed by appellants including overseas Pakistanis and other bona fide purchasers. Through their counsel, they have challenged the judgement to the extent that it affects what they described as their vested proprietary rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They have asked the divisional bench to declare that the impugned judgement does not empower the CDA to dispossess them, evict them or initiate coercive action against them without due process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In support of their case, the appellants have relied heavily on Supreme Court orders dated January 9, 2019 and November 6, 2019. Those orders had directed the CDA to submit a viable, fair, transparent, secure and enforceable arrangement for resolving third-party claims.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The appeals also refer to a notification issued on May 1, 2026, which barred coercive action until a final decision by the prime minister.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Islamabad High Court\u2019s divisional bench is expected to take up the appeals in due course.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Bank of Punjab and several flat owners have challenged an Islamabad High Court ruling that upheld the cancellation of the One Constitution Avenue lease. The appeals also seek protection against coercive action by the CDA. ISLAMABAD: The Bank of Punjab and several apartment owners in Islamabad\u2019s One Constitution Avenue project have filed separate intra-court […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7394,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-policy-governance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistanaffairs.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7393","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistanaffairs.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistanaffairs.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistanaffairs.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistanaffairs.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7393"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pakistanaffairs.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7393\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7395,"href":"https:\/\/pakistanaffairs.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7393\/revisions\/7395"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistanaffairs.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7394"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistanaffairs.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistanaffairs.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistanaffairs.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}