KARACHI: The Supreme Court on Monday directed military authorities to hand over the possession of Askari Park to the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC).

A two-judge bench headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Gulzar Ahmed directed the KMC to remove all commercial activities and structures on the premises of the park and ensure that it would be fully kept for public.

The KMC in its report stated that the total area of the park was 38 acres.

A Corps V representative submitted that the park was given to the military authorities on a 99-year lease.

The chief justice remarked that it was handed over to the military authorities to develop the land as a park, but it was being used for commercial purposes.

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The court also asked the civic agency to shut all commercial activities, remove structures and open them to public.

The bench also comprising Justice Qazi Muhammad Amin Ahmed was informed that wedding halls and 88 shops had been built on the land of the park.

Justice Ahmed asked the representative of Corps V not to involve the army in such a controversy when he attempted to argue that there was one wedding hall and that too had been closed.

The chief justice noted that the agreement of the lease had no date and even the measurement of the land was also not mentioned in it.

Earlier, an applicant had submitted that the land of the park belonged to the KMC and an agreement for adoption of such land was made between the then city district government Karachi and the military authorities in 2005 for development and maintenance of the park.

However, the applicant said wedding halls and other commercial activities were being carried out on the premises of the park.

Published in Dawn, December 28th, 2021