05 March 2005	Saturday	23 Muharram 1426

KARACHI, March 4: The Quaid-i-Azam Mazar Management Board (QMMB) has warned the Karachi Traffic Police to vacate its illegal occupation of the land belonging to the board within three days , otherwise legal action would be taken against it under the Quaid-i-Azam Mazar Protection and Maintenance Ordinance, it is learnt.

According to the sources, the traffic police have encroached upon 0.4 acres of the mazar land on the corner of Shahrah-i-Quaideen and M A Jinnah Road and have illegally constructed a kiosk there.

The QMMB notice, issued to the DIG Traffic Yameen Khan on Wednesday, points out that not only the police have illegally occupied the Quaid's land, they also do not allow gardeners and other staff to plant trees on the land, which amounted to interference in the government duties.

The notice says that the police should avoid assuming the role of a law-breaking agency. The QMMB says that if the land is not vacated, the QMMB would take action against the police under the QMPMO, which prescribes heavy fine and long prison sentences for the violators.

The sources said that the police had illegally occupied the highly valuable land soon after the Purani Numaish Chowrangi was redesigned. Earlier, the police kiosk was situated on a traffic island at the junction of Shahrah-i-Quaideen and M. A. Jinnah Road.

The sources said though the traffic island has slightly been redesigned, it can still be used by the police as earlier. It claims that the kiosk had been ransacked by the protesters a few times.

The sources said after the police illegally occupied the land, the QMMB wrote a letter to the police, and after many efforts the police demolished some portions of the kiosk, but still some illegal structures remain on the site.

The sources said following the demolition of some illegally constructed rooms of the police kiosk, the Quaid-i-Azam Mazar Conservator, Ardeshir Cowasjee, wrote to the then IGP Syed Kamal Shah, and appreciated the demolition of "illegal encroachment from the protected land and for removing the debris.

He, however, pointed out that there remains another police post which needs to be demolished. The sources said that following the conservator's correspondence, the IGP Syed Kamal Shah sent a copy of the conservator's letter to the Capital City Police Officer, Tariq Jamil and directed him to demolish it, if it was an encroachment on the Quaid-i-Azam's mazar Land.

The sources said that the police have approached the Sindh governor, Dr Ishratul Ibad, and were trying to get the land by using his office. The sources said that land is protected under the ordinance, and when the land was earlier required to construct a portion of the Shahrah-i-Quaideen and a portion of the Preedy Street Extension, the government had to amend the ordinance to get the 18 acres for the roads.

The sources said that though the QMMB land had been acquired in the 1970s, even after the passage of over a quarter of a century, the portion of the Preedy Street has not been constructed and it still remains vacant and vulnerable to encroachments.