{"id":106038,"date":"2026-07-09T14:07:17","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T09:07:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.zameen.com\/news\/?p=106038"},"modified":"2026-07-09T14:07:24","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T09:07:24","slug":"fcc-upholds-ban-on-industrial-lands-residential-use","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.zameen.com\/news\/fcc-upholds-ban-on-industrial-lands-residential-use.html","title":{"rendered":"FCC upholds ban on industrial land&#8217;s residential conversion"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Islamabad: The Federal Constitutional Court (FCC) has ruled that land acquired for a specific public purpose, such as industrial development, cannot be converted into residential housing schemes without the provincial government&#8217;s approval and in accordance with the law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In a 17-page judgement authored by Chief Justice Aminuddin Khan, a two-member FCC bench dismissed an appeal filed by M\/s Adil International (Pvt) Ltd against a September 11, 2024, judgement of the Peshawar High Court (PHC), which had rejected the company&#8217;s plea to validate the conversion of industrial land into a housing scheme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The bench, also comprising Justice Ali Baqar Najafi, held that land acquired for a specified public purpose remains legally bound to the objective for which it was originally acquired and does not lose its public character through transfer, assignment or judicial sale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Read: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zameen.com\/news\/ihc-lifts-ban-on-property-transactions-in-zone-iii.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">IHC lifts ban on property transactions in Islamabad\u2019s Zone-III<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;We hold that since the land in question was acquired specifically for the establishment of Paper and Board Mills, the petitioner company cannot claim, as a vested, absolute or indefeasible right, its conversion into a housing scheme,&#8221; the judgement stated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The case relates to 1,020 kanals and 19 marlas of land in Mohal Amangarh, Nowshera Khurd, which was acquired in 1954 under the Land Acquisition Act, 1894, for the establishment of a paper and board mill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Adil International purchased the assets of Adamjee Papers and Board Mills through a court-supervised auction in 2000 for Rs220 million. After dismantling the non-operational factory with the required approvals, the company sought to convert the land into a residential housing scheme. Although it eventually secured a no-objection certificate (NOC) following court orders and proceeded with development, subsequent government directives restricted the land&#8217;s use and transfer, leading to the refusal of registration and attestation of sale deeds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The company later challenged those restrictions, but the PHC dismissed its petition, prompting the appeal before the FCC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Upholding the PHC&#8217;s decision, the FCC ruled that neither the original beneficiary company nor any subsequent purchaser, assignee or auction buyer acquires an unrestricted right to alter the use of land acquired for a public purpose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The court further held that any change in land use requires the prior sanction of the provincial government and must strictly comply with the terms of the agreement executed under Section 41 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Read: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zameen.com\/news\/new-punjab-property-rights-protection-system.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">LHC introduces new mechanism for property rights protection<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The judgement also clarified that if the provincial government determines that all or part of the acquired land has become surplus to the original purpose or is being used inconsistently with the objective of acquisition, it may exercise its powers in accordance with the law and the relevant agreement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Finding no illegality, irregularity or jurisdictional defect in the PHC&#8217;s ruling, the FCC dismissed the appeal, concluding that it was without merit. The judgement is expected to have broader implications for land-use disputes involving industrial land that has subsequently been developed into residential housing schemes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Islamabad: The Federal Constitutional Court (FCC) has ruled that land acquired for a specific public purpose, such as industrial development, cannot be converted into residential housing schemes without the provincial government&#8217;s approval and in accordance with the law. In a 17-page judgement authored by Chief Justice Aminuddin Khan, a two-member FCC bench dismissed an appeal filed by M\/s Adil International (Pvt) Ltd against a September 11, 2024, judgement of the Peshawar High Court (PHC), which had rejected the company&#8217;s plea to validate the conversion of industrial land into a housing scheme. The bench, also comprising Justice Ali Baqar Najafi, held that land acquired for a specified public purpose remains legally bound to the objective for which it was originally acquired and does not lose its public character through transfer, assignment or judicial sale. Read: IHC lifts ban on property transactions in Islamabad\u2019s Zone-III &#8220;We hold that since the land in question was acquired specifically for the establishment of Paper and Board Mills, the petitioner company cannot claim, as a vested, absolute or indefeasible right, its conversion into a housing scheme,&#8221; the judgement stated. The case relates to 1,020 kanals and 19 marlas of land in Mohal Amangarh, Nowshera Khurd, which&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":105491,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15015],"tags":[74714,72978,74718,71008,1524,8241,6182,74713,74717,69203,74719,74715,207,7102,32,41467,63876,74720,33,74716],"persona":[],"class_list":["post-106038","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-legal-taxation","tag-adil-international","tag-constitutional-court","tag-fcc","tag-federal-constitutional-court","tag-housing-schemes-2","tag-industrial-land","tag-kp","tag-land-acquisition-act-1894","tag-land-conversion","tag-land-dispute","tag-land-use","tag-legal-verdict","tag-noc","tag-nowshera","tag-pakistan","tag-peshawar-high-court","tag-property-law","tag-public-purpose-land","tag-real-estate","tag-residential-conversion","cat-15015-id"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>FCC upholds ban on industrial land&#039;s residential use-Zameen News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The court further held that any change in land use requires the prior sanction of the provincial government and must strictly comply...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.zameen.com\/news\/fcc-upholds-ban-on-industrial-lands-residential-use.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"FCC upholds ban on industrial land&#039;s residential use-Zameen News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The court further held that any change in land use requires the prior sanction of the provincial government and must strictly comply...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.zameen.com\/news\/fcc-upholds-ban-on-industrial-lands-residential-use.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Pakistan Real Estate News &amp; 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