KARACHI, Nov 18: The Sindh High Court has restrained the provincial and city district governments from dispossessing lessees of the state land in Gadap Town and demolishing the structures raised by them till the hearing of their petition on Nov 23.

Eight lessees said in their joint petition that they were granted leasehold rights for 30 years. The lease period was later extended to 99 years subject to their paying additional amounts, which were to be fixed by a price committee and examined by a scrutiny committee, to be appointed by the provincial government.

Without going through the procedure laid own in the relevant notification, their counsel Gohar Iqbal submitted that the land utilization department was demanding Rs5.5 million per acre as additional price for conversion into long-term lease on the pain of cancellation of allotments.

A division bench, comprising Justices Sarmad Jalal Osmany and Sajjad Ali Shah, assembled on Saturday to hear the petition and issued notices to the respondents after preliminary hearing. The respondents were, meanwhile, restrained from taking coercive measures.