KARACHI: The Sindh government is learnt to have received first instalment of Rs6 billion, out of total Rs65bn deposited by Bahria Town Karachi in the Supreme Court, on the orders of the apex court in the Bahria Town implementation case.

In its historic judgement, the three-judge SC bench, headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Qazi Faez Isa, had taken up the Rs460bn Bahria Town Karachi settlement case and ordered that Rs35bn will go to the federal government and Rs30bn to the Sindh government.

The SC had ordered: “The National Bank of Pakistan should submit a certified complete bank statement of the account and a separate certificate under the signature of the Bank Manager and co-signed by the President of the National Bank of Pakistan stating the amounts that were respectively remitted to the Government of Pakistan and the Government of Sindh and that the said account has been closed.”

On Wednesday, sources confided to Dawn that the provincial government had received an advice that the amount of Rs6bn had been transferred to the provincial government’s account.

They, however, said that interim Chief Minister retired Justice Maqbool Baqar would take a decision for utilisation of the amount after consulting members of his cabinet.

In 2019, the top court had accepted the Bahria Town’s offer to pay Rs460bn within a period of seven years to acquire 16,896 acres off Karachi’s Superhighway. However, the real estate giant had deposited a sum of around Rs65bn over the years and later moved the court for resettlement of the remaining amount.

However, the apex court had ruled that the Bahria Town had not deposited in the Supreme Court account the instalments it had agreed to pay for a considerable time, and was in default of the consent order.

Published in Dawn, November 30th, 2023