HYDERABAD: A major anti-encroachment drive was launched in Latifabad taluka on Friday in compliance with a relevant Sindh High Court (SHC) order.

Concrete houses, shops and all other unauthorised structures off Autobahn Road were demolished with the help of heavy machinery.

Officials and workers of the civil administration including the anti-encroachment cell of the Hyder­abad Municipal Corporation (HMC) escorted by police and Ran­gers personnel carried out the operation to clear the state-owned land.

According to Latifabad Assis­tant Comm­is­sioner Faraz Siddiqui, the drive has been launched in compliance with the SHC’s detai­led judgement given on a petition (CP-980/2016) seeking complete remo­val of encroachments from commercial and residential areas.

Process remains peaceful amid panic, fear among encroachers

Encroachers tried to persuade the officials to allow them more time to move away but in vain. He said that the encroachers had been served several notices which were largely ignored. Public annou­n­c­e­ments were also made to enable them to move their assets safely before launch of the operation.

“Today, assistance of Rangers personnel was also sought [to ensure peace during the operation] considering some sensitivities,” he added.

All sorts of unauthorised structures from one side of the road were demolished/removed in the day’s operation.

The administration has to keep 75-foot space from median of the road free from all kinds of encroachments. Shops and houses were built within this space and in some cases such structures were raised around pylons of high tension power lines endangering people’s lives.

The operation was started right from underneath the Sir Syed flyover and it covered an area up to the police kiosk in Latifabad’s Unit-12. It continued until after sunset. AC Siddiqui told local reporters that once the commercial areas were covered, the operation would focus on clearance of residential areas.

SUKKUR: The Jacobabad district and municipality officials supervised an anti-encroachment operation launched in different areas of the city late on Thursday evening and resumed on Friday after an overnight break. A strong contingent of police provided escort to the officials and demolition squad.

During the operation, all unauthorised structures in the areas of Tower Road and DC Chowk were demolished/removed with the help of heavy machinery.

According to the district and municipal authorities, structures like furnaces (tandoors) and kitchens of eateries, sheds over business places, shops and other encroachments as well as paraphernalia blocking spaces along roads and footpaths were removed.

Panic prevailed among encroa­chers during the process but no untoward incident took place till the completion of the day’s operation at sunset on Friday.

People’s eviction from old settlements opposed

The Jacobabad chapters of several political and nationalist parties as well as social organisations on Friday held a joint rally against eviction of hundreds of families from their old settlements in the name of anti-encroachment drive.

The rally was organised by a group of activists calling itself the ‘all parties committee’. Local leaders of Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F), Pakistan Peoples Party-Shah­eed Bhutto (PPP-SB), Qaumi Awami Tehreek (QAT), Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz (JSQM), Sindh Taraqqi-pasand Party (STP), National Party (NP), Mazdoor Shehri Ittehad (MSI), Mehran Social Welfare Forum (MSWF) and several other organisations participated.

The rally started from Kashi Ram bridge and marched through the streets of Jacob­abad city.

The participants raised slogans against the irrigation department for issuing eviction notices to the occupants of houses and shops standing on the embankments of Raj Wah (irrigation channel), which once existed in the middle of the city but was closed long ago.

They held a sit-in for several hours in front of the local press club, the culminating point of the rally.

Speaking to them, activists Shaban Abro, Haji Ghulam Nabi Rind, Abdul Hayee Soomro, Abdul Sami Soomro, G.M. Soomro, Mukhtiar Baloch, Maulana Abdul Jabbar Rind, Sahib Khan Chandio, Manzoor Sial and others said these families had been living in their settlements for over half a century and it was unfair to evict them from their ancestral abodes.

They said that the city’s 50pc business and trade were operated from the very old workplaces established along Raj Wah. The businessmen and traders had been paying all taxes since they established their businesses there which proved that their occupation of the spaces was legal and bona fide.

They described the eviction notices as unlawful. They vowed to resist eviction of the families and demolition of their houses and workplaces.

They also expressed solidarity with all families, businessmen and traders given notices by the irrigation department and local administration.

Published in Dawn, January 11th, 2020