KARACHI: Expressing serious resentment towards police for carrying out commercial activities on the land meant for policing purposes, the Sindh High Court on Friday directed the inspector general of police (IGP) to remove all shops and other commercial facilities from their land across the province.

A two-judge bench, headed by Justice Zafar Ahmed Rajput, was hearing a set of petitions, filed in 2021 by over 60 shopkeepers against the notices to vacate the shops at the police welfare shopping centre adjacent to the North Nazimabad police station.

At the previous hearing, the SHC noted that the tenancy/lease agreements were executed between the petitioners and Karachi Police Regimental Fund Welfare Scheme Karachi (KPRFWSK). When it was informed that the SSP-Central was the president of the welfare scheme, the bench directed the IGP and advocate general to inform about the legal status of scheme, details of constructions made on plots of police stations and the amount received so far as well as the details of similar schemes in other district of Sindh.

At the outset of the hearing on Friday, IGP Ghulam Nabi Memon, along with other senior police officials, appeared in court and filed a compliance report.

There are 1,940 shops, restaurants, petrol pumps, flats and offices on land meant for Sindh police, police chief tells SHC

It stated that around 1,940 facilities — 1,397 shops, 338 flats, 162 offices, 37 warehouses, four petrol pumps and two restaurants — were established on the land of Sindh police and leased out commercially.

Around 650 properties were located in Hyderabad, 50 in Karachi, Shaheed Benazirabad 170, Khairpur 121, Sukkur 117, Jacobabad 92, Ghotki 70, Larkana 62, Mirpurkhas 58, Dadu 51, Kashmore 27 and four commercial properties in Badin, it added.

The judges was informed that the Supreme Court had passed an order in 2019, directing the Sindh police to remove/stop all such commercial activities since the land was given for policing purpose.

The bench asked the provincial police chief as to why no action had been taken against such activities despite the apex court’s 2019 order.

The IGP replied that notices had been issued to the persons concerned to vacate the premises, but they had managed to obtain stay orders from various courts.

The bench remarked that it was vacating all such stay orders and directed the IGP to launch an operation and clear the subject land from all commercial activities.

In his report, the IGP submitted that details were called from the SSP-Central and as per the same, KPRFWSK was a welfare scheme and had been in vogue for decades, but had no legal standing after the Supreme Court order passed in April 2019.

It also maintained that the process to roll back the scheme had been initiated, as it was apparent in that matter, by issuing notices to tenants to vacate the properties established on police land.

In 1987, around 70 shops had been constructed on the land of the North Nazimabad police station to meet the welfare needs of Sindh police officials and funds generated through such properties were consumed for immediate relief of police officials like burial expenses etc, it added.

No expenditure from such accounts had been made during the last five years in compliance with the apex court’s order, the report said, adding that no further agreements were executed with the tenants of these shops.

Since 2014, a separate bank account “Police welfare shopping centre North Nazimabad Karachi” was opened particularly for collection of the monthly rent and the last monthly rent of Rs96,834 of the 70 shops was collected in March 2024. The current overall balance of the account stood at around Rs6.4 million, it maintained.

The report also said that the tenants/private persons aggrieved by the order of the apex court filed applications before the Supreme Court and the top court, through an order passed in January 2023, had referred all such matter to the SHC along with the record for taking up the cases and hearing all parties.

Published in Dawn, May 4th, 2024