KARACHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday gave the provincial government of Sindh six months to vacate land illegally occupied by government agencies and other mafias, DawnNews reported.

The hearing of the case was held at the Supreme Court’s Karachi Registry today.

During the hearing, a report pertaining to illegal occupation of the land of a Hindu temple in Hyderabad was presented in the court by the Board of Revenue.

A member of the Sindh Board of Revenue (SBR) Zulfiqar Shah said that 59,800 per acres of government land had been occupied, adding that the encroachers included several government agencies including Defence Housing Authority (DHA), Malir Development Authority (MDA) and Sparco.

Another senior member of SBR Malik Israr submitted a report in the court which stated that out of the total 59,803 acres of the land that was encroached, 52,130 acres of land were under institutional encroachment.

Israr added that 2,864 acres of the land have been retrieved so far.

The court ordered the Sindh government to vacate all the encroached state land within six months' time.

Moreover, the bench also heard an application filed by civil rights campaigner, Mehmood Akhtar Naqvi, who told the court that forest land measuring 1,446.46 acres in union council 4 of Qasimabad, Hyderabad which was vacated on the orders of the Supreme Court had been re- encroached by the influential persons.

The bench directed Hyderabad police to set up police post at the land so that it could be protected from encroachments.