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KARACHI, Jan 23: The Defence Housing Authority on Friday filed a counter affidavit in the Sindh High Court to become a party in two identical petitions against the construction of a flyover in Gizri.
Petitioners Salma Iqbal Chandrigar, Syed Azharul Hassan and 39 other residents of Khayaban-i-Hafiz, Defence Phase-V, moved the court against the construction of the flyover from Submarine Chowrangi to Khayaban-i-Tanzeem on main Gizri Road.
Their counsel, Omer Soomro and Chaudhry Abdul Rasheed, submitted that the chief executive officer of the Clifton Cantonment Board Clifton and the administrator of the DHA awarded the contract to M/s Nespak Pvt Ltd to construct a 16-foot-high flyover to ease traffic congestion in the area. The construction company’s staff then dug up the road to a depth of 20 feet.
The petitioners claimed that they were deprived of their legitimate right to be protected from nuisance, pollution and other corollaries of commercialisation by the DHA in violation of the Environment Protection Act, 2002, and that no prior notice was issued to the residents to seek their suggestions regarding the construction of the flyover.
They prayed to the court to declare the construction of the flyover illegal and restrain the CBC, DHA, Karachi Building Control Authority and the City District Government Karachi from its construction.
They further prayed to the court to direct the DHA administrator to file a revised plan for the flyover, so that no environmental problems were caused by it, as pointed out in the Environmental Protection Authority’s report on Sept 1, 2008.
When the matter came up for hearing on Friday, the respondent DHA submitted comments and filed a counter affidavit to become a party to the case.
The SHC division bench comprising Justice Azizullah M. Memon and Justice Abdur Rehman Farooq Pirzada adjourned the hearing to Feb 3, 2009.
Land regularisation
Meanwhile, the same bench of the Sindh High Court ordered the clubbing of the petition of City District Government Karachi against alleged illegal regularisation of its lands in Karachi by the Sindh government with other identical petitions for a combined hearing.
The CDGK moved the court through its executive district officer (works and services), citing the Sindh secretary (revenue) and six private individuals as respondents. The petitioner’s counsel, Abdul Rehman, submitted that the defunct Karachi Development Authority had acquired Kabuli lands in Deh Phaiai, Karachi, for a Korangi Township scheme to be developed with the help of the federal government, as notified in March 1959. The KDA fulfilled legal formalities and paid compensation to owners of the land, according to the petitioner.
Despite the fact that the land in question had already been transferred to the CDGK, the Sindh government was illegally allotting properties within the Korangi Township scheme, they alleged. The provincial government was alleged to be unlawfully trying to regularise the land that was not its property. It also stopped the CDGK from developing the area, according to the petitioners.
The prosecution counsel stated that the Sindh government had no right to regularise properties legally owned by the CDGK under the provision of the Sindh Urban State Land (Cancellation of Allotments, Conversion and Exchange) Ordinance. The respondent was misleading citizens under the pretext of ownership of property in order to make a large amount of money, he said.
He prayed to the court to declare the CDGK the lawful owner of the property for Korangi Township scheme and to restrain the Sindh government from regularising any land under the provisions of the ordinance.
The matter was taken up before the division bench when Assistant AG Sindh Sarwar Khan submitted that there were other identical petitions. The court directed that the petition be clubbed with three other identical petitions, which would be heard and decided together.
The hearing was adjourned to a date in office.—PPI
