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HYDERABAD: The Supreme Court-appointed judicial commission on water and sanitation has issued bailable warrants for the arrest of the owners of three industrial units in Hyderabad for using industrial plots for commercial purposes.
The warrants are to be served by Hyderabad SSP, who is supposed to produce them before retired Justice Amir Hani Muslim, who heads the one-man commission, on Nov 5.
The warrants were issued on Thursday for the owners of M/s A.H. Industries using shops built on plot No. A/137, SITE; M/s Fateh Textile Mills using plot No. A/4, SITE; and the same mills using plot No. A/4, Cattle Piri, SITE.
They were earlier summoned to appear before the commission on Oct 25 in the backdrop of its Oct 11 directive but they did not turn up.
Justice Muslim had visited the SITE area on Sept 9 and expressed his indignation over use of many industrial plots for commercial purposes. He directed the chief secretary to appear before him in person on Sept 16 and after hearing him, the judge observed that issues were simple but the authorities concerned (the Sindh Building Control Authority and industries department) had complicated them.
The industrial plots had been allotted to SITE by the Board of Revenue (BoR) under the Colonisation Act with the objective to promote industries in the province.
The commission had observed that the concept that on allocation of land by the BoR, SITE had become proprietor was ill-conceived. Under the act they are trustees of the BoR and any allotment made by SITE through its board would not authorise it (SITE) to change the land use.
The commission further observed that “any law either under SBCA or otherwise cannot be applied as far as change of land use allotted for industry purpose to commercial purpose by SITE is concerned”.
Published in Dawn, October 27th , 2018
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