KARACHI: Evacuation notices to govt quarters’ residents: Muttahida blasts move
By Our Staff Reporter
KARACHI, April 24: Muttahida Qaumi Movement has asked President Pervez Musharraf to take notice of the “conspiracy being hatched by the establishment” to displace the residents of government quarters in the city.
It demanded of the president to announce ownership rights for the residents of Martin Quarters, Clayton Quarters, Pakistan Quarters, Jehangir Road East and West, during his public meeting in Karachi to avoid public opposition in the upcoming referendum.
Addressing a press conference at KPC on Wednesday, Deputy Convener MQM Coordination Committee Aftab Ahmed Shaikh said: “We strongly condemn the issuance of evacuation notice to the residents of government quarters. We term it a sheer injustice with poor people and a violation of the verdicts of superior courts.”
Other members of the coordination committee including Dr Farooq Sattar, Khalid Bin Waleed, Hasan Musanna Alvi and Abdus Sattar Ansari were also present.
“We will file a contempt of court case against the officials of the government who had violated the court verdict,” Aftab Shaikh said.
More than 5,000 families of retired government servants or their widows have been living in these quarters for the past several years, who had also renovated them on their own, he said, adding the government never issued funds for the repair work.
In early 1970s, a notice was served on the residents to vacate the quarters upon which a case was filed in the court. In 1984, the state department assured the Supreme Court that 200 acres of land had been allocated where a multi-storied building was built for the rehabilitation of the government servants, the MQM leader recalled. After this assurance, the Supreme Court had issued orders to hold the displacement of the government servants in abeyance, he added.
In 1989, he said, when the Muttahida was sharing power in a coalition government, a resolution was passed in the national assembly for giving ownership rights to the residents of government quarters. The then cabinet also approved the measure, which was announced later at a press conference. But, he alleged, the establishment conspired against it and removed the documents from the record. Besides, a senior civil judge Karachi also ordered the authorities concerned not to issue eviction notices to the residents on a suit filed by the resident.
He said the Muttahida was struggling for the rights of the people when a crackdown was launched against it on June 19, 1992, by the state agencies, “which was still continuing one way or the other.” For the past 10 years, the Muttahida, a representative party of the city, was kept away from solving the people’s problems.
He said in 1986, the then government had given the ownership rights to the residents of ‘F’ type quarters, in Patel Para, adjacent to the government quarters. The then government refused to give ownership rights to those living for the past several years but accorded ownership to those who had illegally occupied the land.
He claimed the Muttahida had documents proving that the land on which government quarters were built belonged to the Evacuee Property, and not to the government. Therefore, the government could not serve the evacuation notice on the residents of these quarters.
“It is a conspiracy being hatched by the establishment and the bureaucracy against President Pervez Musharraf to create hatred against him so that the people could not cast their votes at the referendum,” he said, adding the president should take stock of it and announce giving ownership rights to the residents of government quarters at his public meeting in the city to seek the public support.
PROTEST DEMO: The residents of government quarters staged a protest demonstration in front of Karachi Press Club on Wednesday against the evacuation notices served on them.
They were holding placards and banners and shouted slogans in favour of President Pervez Musharraf and against the bureaucracy.
