HYDERABAD: The Hyderabad circuit bench of the Sindh High Court on Thursday admonished special secretary of Sindh local government, Zubair Siddiqui, in the course of hearing a petition on the issue of encroachments and told him to not to look always towards courts to get an order for work.

“Go and provide funds to municipal authorities for removal of encroachments. We are repeatedly told that municipal bodies lack funds [for carrying out the job],” said Justice Nadeem Akhtar, who along with Justice Adnanul Karim Memon was hearing the petition on the issue of encroachments filed by Rabiur Rehman, Irtafaur Rehman and Shanur Rehman, residents of Qasimabad.

The judges expressed displeasure over the performance of Qasimabad assistant commissioner Ghulam Rasool Panhwar, who held additional charge of administrator of municipal committee, and Hyderabad Municipal Committee’s municipal commissioner Fakhir Shakir, who also held additional charge of the administrator, with regard to removal of all sorts of encroachments in line with court’s orders.

“You will be sent to jail directly from court if you didn’t remove encroachments in seven days,” Justice Akhtar warned the Qasimabad administrator.

The judges were angry to learn from the HMC administrator that only one FIR had been lodged by him and told him to avoid telling the court that he had taken over charge just a couple of days back. He should leave the charge if he could not perform, the judges said.

Mr Shakir undertook to show results from then onwards and said warnings had been issued to encroachers and now they would face FIRs.

Justice Nadeem told Qasimabad administrator that had he been performing, he would not have been called in court. “We know you have other purposes to stick to the office. Where will commuters go in Qasimabad if car showrooms owners park their vehicles on road and restaurant owners use public spaces to serve customers. Why don’t you just remove these things?”, he asked.

The court asked the special secretary that why he did not check on his own whether administrators and municipal officers were performing their duties.

Additional secretary Board of Revenue (BoR) Shakeel Abro was confronted with Supreme Court’s Oct 26 order regarding removal of encroachments across Sindh and the officer conceded that ‘the job was not done in desired manner’.

He was told why BoR had tied DCs hands in Sindh. “It is within SHC’s functions to ensure implementation of apex court’s order. We will initiate contempt proceedings on our own if the orders are not complied with,” the court said.

Hyderabad Deputy Commissioner Fuad Ghaffar Soomro informed the bench that HMC anti-encroachment cell’s officials and staff at similar cells avoided removing encroachments, kept their cell phones switched off and took extortion to turn a blind eye to the mushrooming of illegal structures.

He said that district administration was already engaged in anti-encroachment drive under apex court’s orders to remove encroachments from government land like forests, irrigation and other government properties. “We are there to assist and supervise them but it is primarily municipal bodies’ job,” he said.

The court adjourned hearing of the petition to Dec 9.

Published in Dawn, November 19th, 2021