Right of Pre-emption is activated on Talb-e-Muasabat
PLJ 2014 · Peshawar High Court
This case is about a legal dispute over "pre-emption," which under Pakistani law gives certain people (such as neighbors or co-owners) the first right to buy a property before it is sold to someone else. To exercise this right, the law requires the claimant to immediately assert his intention to purchase upon hearing of the sale, a step called "Talb-e-Muwathibat," and later prove in court exactly how, when, and from whom he learned about the sale, including naming the person who informed him.
In this case, the petitioner (Gull Bad Shah) had filed a pre-emption suit and initially won in the trial court. However, he never named the person who informed him about the sale, either in his written claim or his list of witnesses, and never tried to produce that informer as a witness during the trial. The appellate court reversed the trial court's decision and ruled against him. He then approached the Peshawar High Court, seeking permission to introduce this missing evidence at a very late stage.
The High Court refused, holding that such a fundamental gap cannot be fixed later, especially not for the first time during a revision petition. It compared the pre-emption plaint to an FIR in a criminal case, meaning it must be complete and accurate from the start. Since the petitioner failed to establish this essential requirement early on, his case failed, and the revision petition was dismissed. This case reinforces strict procedural standards required in pre-emption lawsuits.
یہ مقدمہ "حقِ شفعہ" کے قانونی تنازعے سے متعلق ہے، جو پاکستانی قانون کے تحت بعض افراد (جیسے پڑوسیوں یا شریک مالکان) کو کسی جائیداد کے کسی اور کے ہاتھ فروخت ہونے سے پہلے اسے خریدنے کا اولین حق دیتا ہے۔ اس حق کو استعمال کرنے کے لیے قانون یہ تقاضا کرتا ہے کہ دعویٰ کنندہ فروخت کی خبر سنتے ہی فوری طور پر اپنی خریداری کی نیت کا اظہار کرے، جسے "طلبِ مواثبت" کہا جاتا ہے، اور بعد ازاں عدالت میں ثابت کرے کہ اسے فروخت کی خبر بالکل کس طرح، کب اور کس سے ملی، جس میں مخبر کا نام بتانا بھی شامل ہے۔
اس مقدمے میں درخواست گزار (گل بادشاہ) نے حقِ شفعہ کا دعویٰ دائر کیا تھا اور ابتدائی طور پر ٹرائل کورٹ سے کامیابی حاصل کی تھی۔ تاہم اس نے کبھی بھی اس شخص کا نام نہیں بتایا جس نے اسے فروخت کی اطلاع دی تھی، نہ اپنے تحریری دعوے میں اور نہ ہی اپنی گواہوں کی فہرست می