KARACHI: The Supreme Court on Friday sought comments from the Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB), Board of Revenue (BoR) and others in a case pertaining to encroachment on the land of Larkana’s ladies club, a pre-partition national heritage site.

Headed by Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar, a three-judge bench was conducting the suo motu proceedings on the reported threat to a national heritage site in Sindh where a certain portion of the pre-partition club building had been lost to land grabbers.

The bench that comprised Justice Faisal Arab and Sajjad Ali Shah also directed the authorities concerned to remove all encroachments, including Larkana Press Club, from the national heritage site within 15 days.

The chief justice expres­s­ed extreme displeasure over the state of affairs and remarked that the deputy commissioner or Pakistan Railways did not have any power to allot the state land to anyone. “It seems that here anyone can do whatever he wants to do, but we act strictly in accordance with law,” he remarked.

The bench directed the Larkana deputy commissioner to file a detailed and comprehensive report after examining the whole issue.

According to media repo­rts the ladies club was a significant part of Larkana’s her­i­tage and had hosted some famous guests in its time. The club was home to cultural activities organised by Hindu, Christian and Mus­lim women before partition.

The Gomibai Jawaharmal Ladies Club, now known as Larkana Ladies Club, was built by a Hindu deputy collector, who named it after his sister. On Jan 3, 1934, the club was inaugurated by Mrs R.E. Gibson, wife of a senior British bureaucrat. The report suggested that the club had around 107 members and ran without any financial support from the government.

Though the land is the property of the district government, in 2004 the government decided to sell the club and the plot to a builder, but later abandoned the idea when members of the club formed a citizens’ action forum and launched a campaign against the government’s decision. Later, authorities succumbed to public pressure and withdrew the decision to hand over the land to builders.

But the report stated that two shops in the club had been occupied by the land mafia, which also had plans to grab the entire precious plot and the historical building.

Published in Dawn, December 9th, 2017