Overview
- The Federal Constitutional Court, which ruled Monday, overturned the Supreme Court's 2024 demolition order for the Monal restaurant and allowed appeals by the Capital Development Authority and the Metropolitan Corporation Islamabad.
- The bench led by Justice Hassan Azhar Rizvi instructed trial courts to decide ownership claims independently and to dispose of pending cases quickly, while administrative and regulatory matters were left to the competent authorities.
- Justice Rizvi said the earlier Supreme Court judgment had included observations beyond the record and stressed that decisions must be based on law rather than emotion.
- The FCC decision does not resolve who owns the land or what regulators will decide, so the dispute will continue through expedited trials and separate administrative processes and could be appealed again depending on those outcomes.
- The case highlights the legal tension between protecting Margalla Hills as a national park and the CDA/MCI argument that lease revenues fund local services, a debate that will shape how courts and regulators balance conservation and municipal finance.