January 14, 2009	Wednesday	Muharram 16, 1430

KARACHI, Jan 13: The Jamaat-i-Islami has claimed that the city government’s city warden department has illegally occupied a football ground in Block 17 of Gulshan-i-Iqbal.

Sindh JI chief Asadullah Bhutto said at a news conference at the Karachi Press Club on Tuesday that the occupation of an amenity plot was a clear violation of rules and was an infringement on citizen’s rights.

The people of Karachi, he said, had already been deprived of many recreational facilities. But instead of providing them new recreational facilities, the city government was depriving the public of the few open public spaces the city had.

The JI leader said that the football ground was the only park in the union council-6 of Gulshan-i-Iqbal where youths of the area used to play, and women and children used to come and spend their leisure time in a clean and healthy atmosphere.

But the city wardens had illegally occupied the amenity plot to construct their headquarters, he alleged.

The headquarters would create a lot of problems, while making the area off-limits to the general public, especially women and children, he said.

In this regard, he said, the JI would soon move the Sindh High Court.

He questioned the legal status of the city warden department — although the CDGK had already renamed it — and said that there was no provision in the local government law about parallel policing.

Mr Bhutto was accompanied by other JI leaders.—PPI