KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Tuesday restrained the Pakistan Railways (PR) from raising illegal commercial constructions near tracks and auctioning the shops.

A two-judge bench headed by Justice Aqeel Ahmed Abbasi also directed the divisional superintendent (DS) railways-Karachi to be in attendance along with relevant record on March 30.

When the bench took up a petition filed in 2015 against constructions of commercial shops and units alongside railways tracks, the counsel for the petitioner argued that a restraining order had been passed by the SHC in December 2015 directing the railways not to raise any illegal constructions on the sides of tracks.

However, the lawyer contended that recently, the railway authorities had started constructing shops and a public notice had been published in a newspaper on Feb 26 for auction of such shops being built at Malir Colony and the Pir Bukhari shrine near Kala Pul in violation of law and orders of the Supreme Court.

It also directed the divisional superintendent and the land & estate management director to maintain status quo in respect of constructions activities till the next hearing.

The bench summoned the DS-Railways on the next hearing along with relevant record.

The court directed a deputy attorney general to ensure that railway authorities must not raise any illegal constructions near the tracks on the open spaces, required to be maintained as per law, and not to put the shops for public auction pursuant to the impugned publication.

Published in Dawn, March 15th, 2023