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KARACHI, Nov 19: The Sindh High Court reserved on Wednesday its judgment in the former Indian high commission building case. The proceedings were initiated by Syed Ali Baqar Naqvi claiming that he had entered into an agreement with Karim Ghulam Hussain Jiva, the owner of the building, for its purchase and had paid Rs2 million as earnest money out of the agreed price of Rs33.97 million but the police were interfering with the transfer of the property to him.
The claim was contested by the Sindh government, which submitted that Mr Jiva had nothing to do with the property — the 3,883-square-yard plot number 63 and 63/1, Old Clifton, together with the construction raised thereon — and could not transfer a valid title to anybody, including Mr Naqvi. The documents were forged and fabricated and the property rightfully belonged to the Indian government, which had purchased it in 1950 through the then Indian head of the state (the late Rajendra Prasad). All subsequent transactions were bogus.
Winding up his arguments on Wednesday, Advocate-General Anwar Mansoor Khan submitted that the government was obliged to protect foreign property under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. An FIR has been lodged against officials involved in the fabrication of the property record. By collusive litigation, the plaintiff and Mr Jiva, who has been impleaded by him as a defendant, wanted to legalise their unlawful deal through a court order.
In his rebuttal on behalf of the plaintiff, Advocate Raja Qureshi argued that the late Indian president Rajendra Prasad owned the property in his personal capacity and executed a conveyance deed in favour of Lateefan Begum, from whom it ultimately passed on to Mr Jiva, who struck a deal with his client. The documents produced by the plaintiff were genuine and authentic.
Appearing for Mr Jiva, Advocate Suleiman Habibullah supported the contentions of Advocate Qureshi and said his client as well as the plaintiff had a right to be dealt with in accordance with law.
Justice Ataur Rahman reserved his judgment after hearing the counsel. The interim order to the parties to maintain status quo would remain in force in the meantime.
LEW CASE: The Sindh High Court on Tuesday issued pre-admission notices to the City District Government Karachi, the National Highway Authority and others on a petition filed by 11 petitioners belongs to political parties and NGOs against the Lyari Expressway (LEW), adds PPI.
The SHC’s division bench, comprising Justice Zahid Kurban Alvi and Justice Zia Pervez, however, expressed their surprise that why the petitioners had not approached the court earlier when the matter was being taken up and disposed of by the SHC.
The petitioners stated they were interested in preserving nature and environment of the city and filed petition on behalf of the LEW affected people.
They stated that the original plan of LEW in 1995 envisaged widening of the riverbed 200 feet at Sohrab Goth with gradual increase to 500 feet near Mauripur and construction of 50-foot wide roads on both banks which were to pass under 12 bridges under the river. But, they stated, the plan had been amended and now the riverbed would be widened to 800 feet and there was to be 100-foot wide roads on both banks, which was to be on the existing bridges.
They argued that despite a request by the NGOs, affected people and others, the amended plan of LEW was not made public. They stated work on the project was started without taking into consideration the environmental impact.
The court, declining to grant stay on the LEW project, advised the authorities to acquire only such amount of land as might be absolutely necessary for the construction of the project and reconsider this aspect of the matter.
