Commission seeks pre-partition record of Gul Plaza land

Published
Paramilitary personnel walk past charred remains of the Gul Plaza shopping mall in Karachi on Jan 22, 2026. — AFP/File
Paramilitary personnel walk past charred remains of the Gul Plaza shopping mall in Karachi on Jan 22, 2026. — AFP/File

KARACHI: The Gul Plaza Judicial Commission on Wednesday directed an official of the Board of Revenue (BoR) to submit documentary evidence of land records, including those dating back before partition, relating to the ill-fated building by April 1.

The single-judge commission headed by Justice Agha Faisal of the Sindh High Court (SHC) also expressed dissatisfaction over the incomplete records submitted by a BoR official Khalid Haider Shah on Wednesday regarding the Gul Plaza land.

During the proceedings, the official requested additional time to compile the complete record, which the commission granted, subject to the April 1 deadline.

However, the commission asked him to provide a complete set of documents, including records dating back to the pre-independence period, and directed that all records be submitted to the commission secretariat.

The commission raised a series of questions regarding the legal status of the Gul Plaza land and asked as to how the land on which Gul Plaza stands was originally recorded in the revenue and municipal registers — whether as municipal property, leasehold, freehold or grant — and what the mutation entries and cadastral maps showed.

Published in Dawn, March 26th, 2026

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