HYDERABAD, Nov 23: A group of 11 residents of a Kutchi Abadi filed a joint application in the Sindh High Court, Hyderabad circuit bench, on Tuesday requesting it to allow them to become respondents/interveners in a petition filed by the Mehran Oil Mills seeking their eviction from the land near the mill.
The court has already issued warrants for the arrest of Deputy Superintendent of railways Mohammad Junaid Qureshi and a show-cause notice to SSP of railway police Syed Safdar Hussain Shah for failing to appear in the court for violation of its order. The matter has been fixed for Dec 1.
The applicants, including Mohammad Bashir and Mohammad Ibrahim, are residents of Mir Fateh Colony near which two blasts took place on rail tracks on Nov 20. They accused the petitioner of concealing facts and obtaining an order from the court for demolition of unauthorised construction and removal of encroachment through misrepresentation of facts.
According to them, more than 100 persons had been residing near the mill for 40 to 50 years but the petitioner had not nominated them as respondents. The residents said that they were also be affected by a verdict on the petition therefore they be made party in the petition.
The mill management time and again tried to displace the residents from the colony when the mill was not constructed and on residents' refusal, the petitioner obtained forged documents from city survey department.
They said that they used to contact local administration and higher authorities for obtaining lease of the Kutchi Abadi but they were told that the land belonged to the Pakistan Railways but on the contrary the mill was registered and given documents in this respect.
They said that petitioner also suppressed the fact that the mill was situated on the main road between Hussainabad and Hyderabad and caused pollution in adjoining residential areas.
They added that it should have been set up in the SITE area but it was allowed to be set up in the densely populated area for unknown reasons despite the fact that the oil mill used different chemicals which caused harmful effects to the health of the area residents, particularly children.
They said that the Pakistan Railways had been nominated as respondent but not the affected persons. They quoted the Sindh Public Property (Removal of Encroachment) Act 1975 which empowered the Sindh government or any officer authorized by it to remove encroachments and argued that in the present case the Sindh government had not been involved.
They claimed that the petition had been filed on assumptions and no documentary evidence had been produced by petitioner or respondents about ownership of alleged encroached area which indicated that the mill management had not approached court with clean hands. They contended that if they were not made respondents, purpose of filing of the application could be frustrated.