HYDERABAD, Oct 6: The Hyderabad circuit bench of the Sindh High Court on Thursday issued notices to Brig (rtd) Ghulam Mohammad Mohatram, secretary of the provincial home department, DCO Mohammad Hussain Syed and EDO (revenue) Abdul Sattar Jatto on a contempt of court application.

The application was filed by Sajida Parveen and Abdul Hafeez Qureshi, two of the 751 affected people of ethnic riots of 1988-90.

The applicants requested the court to take action against the repondents for flouting high court’s order.

They had filed a constitutional petition through Ayaz Latif Palijo which was disposed of on February 22 by a division bench of the court with directives that “under circumstances, it is desirable that the home secretary may sanction the requisite funds as recommended by the Rehabilitation Committee of Hyderabad on July 13, 1998, such allocation of fund should be made available in the ensuing budget for next fiscal year positively”.

The petitioners had sought relief for 751 affected families of ethnic riots of 1988-90 and for compliance of order of then Sindh chief minister of May 23, 1991 “for allocating and development of 80 acres of land for settlement of 751 families and to pay compensation.

The petitioners said that the home department directed the Hyderabad DCO through a letter of June 15, copy of which was sent to petitioner Abdul Hafeez Qureshi, to submit detailed report regarding required land and amount demanded.

They said that on directives of the DCO, Mukhtiarkar and DDO revenue Qasimabad replied through letter that government land was available in survey nos. 190, 191 comprising 44-11 acres and 147-08 acres, respectively, in Deh Sari in Qasimabad taluka.

They said that the contemnors did not take any appropriate step though directives were passed by the secretary home department but petitioners were kept on false hopes for past 16 years and it was violation of high court order.

They said that the secretary home department, in order to save his skin, issued the letter to DCO and when petitioner approached secretary home he replied that he was not getting feed back from district government.

They said that it was inspite of the fact that secretary home was clearly directed to make available budget for allocation to above affected families as per recommendation by the Hyderabad Rehabilitation Committee.

They said that the home secretary and the DCO had not only continuously dithered in forwarding details of the land but also misguided the home department for recommending a paltry sum of Rs20 million for laying of water, sewerage, gas and electricity connections and roads/ paths as well as monetary compensation to 751 families for construction of their houses and still no recommendations had been forwarded by contemnors, who wanted to delay the matter.

They said that on May 23, 1991 the Sindh government had allocated Rs100,000 per family to help them construct their houses but today the cost of construction had been doubled therefore Rs200,000 per family should be awarded for 751 families which would bring monetary compensation to around Rs150 million.

They accused contemnors of trying to reserve land of affected families for their favourites by encroaching upon rights of petitioners as in July 2004 another piece of government land in same Deh was also identified for the same purpose by a committee and it was illegally given for housing scheme of revenue officers.