KARACHI, Oct 29: The city district government allowed the sale of the former Indian High Commission premises at Clifton in May, a builder and developer asserted in his counter-affidavit before the Sindh High Court on Wednesday.

The counter-affidavit was submitted by Advocate Suleiman Habibullah on behalf of Karim Ghulam Hussain Jiva of Elite Builders and Developers, from whom plaintiff Syed Ali Baqar Naqvi claims to have derived his title to the disputed property — plot number 63 and 63/1, Clifton Quarters. The contents of the document were fully supported by the plaintiff’s counsel, Advocate Raja Qureshi. Mr Jiva has been impleaded by the plaintiff as a defendant in his suit.

Justice Ataur Rahman, who is seized of the suit, adjourned further proceedings till Nov 4. The interim order for maintenance of status quo will remain in force in the meanwhile. The Sindh government was represented by AG Anwar Mansoor Khan and additional AG M. Ahmad Pirzada.

Denying any fraudulent transaction in respect of the property as alleged by the provincial home secretary, S. Anwar Haider, in his counter-affidavit, the developer maintained that the property, through various conveyance deeds and general powers of attorney, passed on from Parmanand Kundamal to Mr and Mrs Supariwala and from them to the late Indian president Rajendra Prasad, who executed a general power of attorney in favour of Ms Lateefan in 1952.

The attorney sold the property to Manzoor Hussain, who transferred it to Elite Builders and Developers in 1979. Following its mutation in his name in 2002, Mr Jiva sold it to the plaintiff in 2003 “after obtaining the necessary permission from the city district government”.

The developer denied that the property still belonged to the president or government of India. The mutation document and the no-objection certificate, he claimed, had been issued by the competent authority. The official assertion that an assistant district officer was missing along with the relevant record was aimed at justifying the government claim that the documents were unlawfully issued. No action whatsoever had been taken against the officer. However, all these matters were subject to scrutiny of the official record and depositions through evidence, he deposed.

The deponent stated that he had handed over possession of the property to the plaintiff. There was no collusion between him and the plaintiff and the sale transaction was “real, actual and in accordance with law”.

Disputing that the police was doing its duty, he said “it is not the business of the police to secure the property of a foreign country”, particularly when its status was disputed.

The counter-affidavit was silent on the official assertion that the sale agreement between Mr Jiva and the plaintiff had not been filed because none was in existence and that the receipt for a token amount of Rs 2 million out of the allegedly stated sale consideration of Rs 31.976 million “was ex facie fraudulent”.

JUDGMENT RESERVED: A division bench of the Sindh High Court, comprising Justice Ghulam Nabi Soomro and Justice Sarmad Jalal Osmany, on Wednesday reserved judgment on the appeals of the banned Sipah-i-Sahaba Pakistan’s activists against the death sentence in a sectarian killing case awarded to them by a Suppression of Terrorist Activities (STA) court, adds PPI.