KARACHI, April 26: The Sindh High Court ordered the municipal and police authorities to remove all encroachments made by land grabbers over a 500-acre area in Keamari along the sea.
A petitioner submitted through Advocate Gohar Iqbal that over 500 acres, including land reclaimed from the sea by axing mangroves, had been occupied in the Lal Bhakkar area (Ismail Brohi Goth) by land grabbers in collusion with a former town nazim of Keamari. Plots were being demarcated at will and illegally sold by the grabbers in connivance with the revenue, police and municipal authorities. Some of the buyers had raised palatial buildings over the encroached land.
The petitioner gave a detailed resume of the activities of land grabbers and their collusion with the authorities. His counsel, Gohar Iqbal, said the encroachment on state land not only deprived the public exchequer of huge amounts of revenue but also posed a threat to environment. If private individuals were allowed to cut mangroves and occupy the reclaimed land for their personal enrichment, there would be no end to environmental degradation.
A division bench comprising Justices Gulzar Ahmed and Mrs Qaiser Iqbal asked the city district government and Keamari Town authorities to clear all land of encroachments. Police and other law enforcement agencies were directed to assist the municipal authorities in removing the encroachments.
The Keamari Town nazim was asked to submit a compliance report to the SHC inspection team within a month.
BUILDERS RESTRAINED: Another division bench consisting of Justices Amir Hani Muslim and Yasmin Abbasy, meanwhile, restrained the owners and builders of plots 3 and 3-A, Al Hilal Co-operative Housing Society, from raising further construction.
Karachi Building Control Authority counsel Shahid Jamil Khan submitted a report saying that both builders were gross violators of building regulations and were involved in collusive litigation. Structures built on both plots were required to be demolished under the law. The builders requested a restraint order against the KBCA. The court passed an interim injunction against the KBCA as well as the builders.
According to the KBCA report, a five-storied apartment complex has been built over the 12,000-square-foot plot 3-A, which was meant for a double-storied bungalow. Compulsory open space has been occupied and the covered area doubled. The adjoining plot number 3 was also meant for a ground-plus-one-storey bungalow but the owner-developer has already built a basement, ground floor and first floor, which has columns erected over it for another floor. The compulsory open space has been occupied.
When the bench pointed out that why the KBCA did not take timely action to prevent the violations, Advocate Shahid Jamil Khan said the structure on plot 3-A was sealed but had to be desealed because the flats had meanwhile been occupied by the purchasers. He assured the court that both unauthorized structures would be demolished if the court so directed. Action would also be taken against the KBCA officials found involved in violations.
CLAIM REJECTED: The bench, meanwhile, disposed of a petition moved by several claimants in respect of hundreds of acres commanded by Ghulam Muhammad Barrage at Deh Garo, Hyderabad.
Additional Advocate-General M. Ahmed Pirzada said the petitioners had submitted fabricated documents to obtain a court order in favour of their unlawful occupation of the land. They were encroachers and illegal occupants and sought to legalize their possession through a court order.
