KARACHI, Jan 30: A division bench of Sindh High Court on Wednesday put the city government and the provincial government on notice for Feb 8 on a petition challenging the removal of encroachments for Lyari Expressway, which will run from Sohrab Goth on Super Highway to the bridge on Mauripur Road.

The bench comprised Justice Ghulam Rabbani and Justice Zia Pervez.

The bench passed the order when a petition seeking stay of the demolition work, filed by four petitioners of Sher Shah, came up for pre-admission hearing.

The Secretary for Local Government, the District Coordination Officer, the City District Nazim, the Director General of the Lyari Development Authority and the Advocate General of Sindh have been made respondents in the petition filed by Sultan, Razia, Mohammad Rafiq and Sadia, filed through counsel Ghulam Abbas Soomro.

They have come to the court apprehending the demolition of their property in the government campaign to remove encroachments and prayed it to declare such an act as illegal.

It is the case of the petitioner Sultan, who is engaged in export of vegetables and fruits, that he had purchased a plot of 5,000 square yards for Rs1.5m and had spent a considerable amount to raise the infrastructure.

In 1997 the petitioner had approached the KMC to regularize the lease deed. It executed four deeds for 99 years in favour of the petitioners on a payment of Rs300 per square yards.

The petitioner has claimed that without adequate notice and compensation his property could not be demolished.

The project cost has been estimated at Rs4 billion and it will be completed in 36 months. Funded by the federal government, the first tranche of the project Rs500 million, allocated in the federal budget, has been released.

The City government had proposed amendment to the design of the project not only to save many people from being displaced but also for saving government funds. The local government had suggested that this could be achieved by keeping the width of the expressway at 40 feet throughout.