SUKKUR: The irrigation department has reportedly issued a notice to the owners/management of Hotel Inter Pak Inn, a major four-star hotel in the city, seeking valid documents of the ownership of its entire covered area.

The notice came as the department, assisted by the district administration and law enforcement agencies, has launched a massive anti-encroachment operation to retrieve its occupied land across the province in pursuance of a Sindh High Court order.

On Thursday, an assistant executive engineer of the irrigation department visited the hotel — standing between Northwest Canal and Rice Canal on the right bank of the Indus and overlooking Sukkur Barrage — and reportedly told the management that it either entirely stood on the department’s land or partially encroached upon it. The management was asked to produce documentary evidence within the next three days to satisfy the department about ownership of the hotel’s covered area.

The official made it clear to the hotel management that its partial or complete demolition as encroachment was discussed at a recent meeting of the department.

The building of the hotel was originally owned by the national flag carrier, Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), but was later privatised and purchased by then Senator Islamuddin Shaikh in 1985.

It has been gathered that Mr Shaikh still owned the hotel though various ‘administrators’ took it over to run its affairs since 1985. A reliable source said here on Friday that Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leader Manzoor Hussain Wassan was also a partner in the hotel’s business and another PPP leader Aslam Shaikh was associated with it as the administrator. Aslam Shaikh has in the past served as chairman of the Sukkur district council.

Published in Dawn, November 28th, 2020