KARACHI, June 10: The Sindh High Court on Friday issued notices to the Rangers, police, Karachi Electric Supply Company, city government, Karachi Water and Sewerage Board, Sui Southern Gas Company and other private respondents in a petition of the Karachi Port Trust against encroachments within the KPT limits.

The petition was filed by the Trustees of Port of Karachi, a statutory body under the KPT Act, which impleaded the Sindh home secretary, provincial and city police chiefs, DIG of South, director-general of the Rangers, director of the anti-encroachment department of the city government, SHO of the Jackson police station, KESC, KWSB and SSGC, and private persons Sikandar Shah Jadoon and Hakim Chandio as respondents.

The petitioner submitted that the port land at Mauripur, Younusabad at Hawkesbay and Gulshan-i-Sikanderabad at Keamari was being encroached by influential land-grabbers under political shelter.

The KPT said that unabated encroachment at the seabed was threatening the very viability and future expansion/development ofthe port.

It said the land grabbers had encroached the prime land of the petitioner in Gulshan-i- Sikandarabad.

The petitioner recalled that the KPT had tried to build a wall in front of Gulshan-i-Sikandarabad to prevent further encroachment in 2003, but failed due to armed resistance by the land grabbers who opened straight fire on the KPT’s anti-encroachment party.

The KPT said the land grabbers were controlling the area with the aid of their armed men and had started marking plots and building houses at Machhar Colony, Keamari, Sikandarabad, Younusabad and Tikri Colony.