KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Wednesday sought a reply from the provincial government in a petition against launching of commercial projects on mangroves land in twin islands of Bundal and Buddo off Karachi’s coast.

A two-judge bench comprising Justices Muhammad Ali Mazhar and Amjad Ali Sahito was hearing a set of petitions challenging the vires of the Pakistan Islands Development Authority (PIDA) Ordinance promulgated by the federal government in September last year.

During Wednesday’s proceedings, assistant attorney general Hussain Bohra submitted that the ordinance had already lapsed on Jan 3.

However, he requested time to seek instructions from the federal authorities in this regard.

On his request, the matter was adjourned till Feb 17 when the bench directed acting additional attorney general Kashif Paracha to appear and assist the court in this regard.

Petitioners question why provincial govt has not declared mangroves of Bundal, Buddo as ‘protected forests’

Additional advocate general Jawad Dero also requested time to submit a reply on behalf of the Sindh government specifically with regard to purported launching of the commercial projects on the land of mangroves’ forests on the two islands.

A group of environmentalists and environment activists including Syed Yasir Husain, Ahmad Shabbar and Syed Jamil Hassan Kazmi had approached the court submitting that the Indus Delta in Sindh, which is the sixth largest in the world, was home to 97 per cent of mangroves in Pakistan.

The Bundal and Buddo islands are a part of the Indus Delta and spread over 12,000 hectares, which is more than the size of Karachi’s Defence Housing Authority, including 3,349 hectares of mangrove forests, they added.

The petitioners said that the mangrove forestation and its encompassing habitat on the islands of Bundal and Buddo had been maliciously neglected and left to deteriorate and a target of usurpation with several attempts having been made to commercialise the same.

They apprehended that any act of deforestation of the mangroves for launching any development project under the PIDA ordinance would result in an irreparable loss of an already degrading and shrinking mangrove forest.

The petitioners said the Sindh government be questioned as to why mangroves of the Buddo and Bundal islands — located in Korangi, Phitti and Jhari creeks — were the only forests that it had not declared as protected.

They sought a direction for the provincial government to declare them as protected forests.

The petitioners also asked the court to restrain the federal government from causing any damage, alteration, or change in the landscape of the mangroves on Buddo and Bundal islands till the final disposal of the petition.

They contended that PIDA was apparently intended to usurp Bundal and Buddo islands which were exclusive territories of the province of Sindh.

KDA employees’ pension case

The same bench directed the director general of the Karachi Development Authority to submit a report regarding progress on a local government department summary sent to the chief minister for making a loan of Rs844.159 million available to the KDA and auctioning of its plots to pay outstanding dues of retired employees.

KDA DG Nasir Abbas Soomro and member (finance) Taufeeq Soomro filed a report in compliance with the court’s Jan 19 order.

After going through its contents, the judges observed that the report clearly mentioned that 10 per cent pension benefits had been paid on Sept 25, 2020, whereas 22pc amount was paid on Jan 15 and 32pc was paid on Jan 22.

At this, the counsel for the petitioners pointed out that only 32pc amount had been received by the retired employees and nothing else.

The DG pointed out that he had written a letter on Jan 22 to the official assignee, who had been appointed by the SHC, for the disbursement of the 32pc amount to the retired employees.

Official assignee Dr Mohammad Waseem admitted that the letter was received by his office and in continuation he had already written a letter on Jan 25 to the bank concerned for the release of the 32pc amount with regard to dues of the retired employees of the KDA.

He also mentioned the account number in this letter and said no payment shall be released from the said account for any other purpose other than payment of retirement benefits.

When the judges inquired from the DG and the official assignee as to whether this amount had been disbursed, they stated that the letter was sent to the bank on Jan 25 and within a few days the amount would be credited in the bank accounts of the retired employees.

The judges took the statement on record with further instructions to the official assignee to liaison with the bank to ensure that the amount was credited in the account of the retired employees at an early date.

When the bench took up the issue of remaining 36pc outstanding amount of the retirement benefit, KDA counsel Khursheed Javed also provided a copy of a summary moved to the CM on Jan 8 by the LG secretary for making provision to grant a loan to the KDA in the sum of Rs844.159m so that further payment might be disbursed after receiving this amount.

Besides this summary, in compliance with the court’s order to auction some commercial/residential plots, they put up some plots for auction to discharge the liability.

But, the KDA chief submitted that there was a procedure to follow and at least six-month time would be required to put up the properties for auction and sanctioning by the competent authority and ultimate sale and for this reason alone they submitted a request to the LG department for the grant of some loan so that the benefits of the retired employees may be paid and after auctioning the plots and realising the sale proceeds, the loan amount shall be refunded to the Sindh government.

The bench directed the office to transmit the copy of the order to the additional advocate general, the chief secretary and LG secretary to consider for proposal and make it feasible so that the government of Sindh may grant the loan to the KDA.

On a request made by the KDA Officers Association, the bench recalled its order dated Dec 17, 2020 regarding stopping “salary of the present employees starting from the top”.

The court also recalled its previous order wherein it had directed that no posting or transfer of any officer/employee shall be made by the KDA/competent authority without the court’s permission.

Published in Dawn, January 28th, 2021