October 10, 2008	Friday	Shawwal 10, 1429

KARACHI, Oct 9: The Sindh High Court on Thursday summoned the district revenue officer of Thatta to help resolve a land dispute involving provincial information minister Shazia Marri and members of her family as leaseholders.

The revenue officer would appear on Friday morning with the relevant record as a division bench comprising Justices Munib Ahmed Khan and Khwaja Naveed Ahmed ordered after hearing Advocate Jagdish R. Mulani for petitioner Mohammad Hussain Hajo and Advocate M. Ahmed Pirzada for the board of revenue.

Mr Pirzada submitted that according to the revenue record, the respondents, including Shazia Marri, her mother Begum Perveen Marri and sister Shumaila Marri, were bona fide lessees of the land in dispute.

Summoning the DRO, Thatta, the bench issued bailable warrants for respondents Begum Perveen Marri, Shahnawaz Magsi, Rana Mir Mohammad Rajput, Altaf Magsi, Akbar Khan Pathan and Shah Mohammad Magsi to ensure their presence as they had failed to answer repeated summons.

The petitioner contended that he purchased 46 acres of barani (rain-fed) land at Deh Kohistan 7/1, Taluka Thatta, from its lawful owner in 1965.

The land was duly demarcated and he started tilling its cultivable parts after levelling sand dunes. Meanwhile, Begum Perveen Marri, Shazia, Shumaila, Khalid Abbas, Ali Mohammad and Mohammad Bux acquired 16 acres each of undemarcated land in the area on ‘wahi chahi’ lease for 10 years for developing and cultivating the land in 1991-92.

The land, the petitioner further alleged, was not taken possession of but the lease was renewed for another 30 years recently. Begum Marri got the land leased to her and other respondents demarcated by a mukhtiarkar recently in his absence and without notice to him.The demarcated land incorporated his own 46 acres. The respondents were already excavating sand from his land under an expired licence for exploitation of minor minerals from the provincial mines and minerals department, the petitioner said.