HYDERABAD: The counsel for the Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (HMC) has not been appearing in the case of historic Pucca Qila archaeological / heritage land case before a civil court for several months. The evidence of the plaintiff side is also being recorded without cross-examination.

HMC’s counsel in the case is Waqas Ahmed Siddiqui.

According to the case file and court diaries available on Sindh High Court’s website, the counsel had been called absent each time since October this year.

When contacted, Waqs Siddiqui told Dawn that he had been restrained by the HMC from appearing in the hearings. He said that when the suit was first filed before court, he had submitted a written statement in response to a notice.

The case was filed by Mohammad Shaukat, an activist of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P), Hyderabad.

The plaintiff has prayed the court to declare that he was lawful owner of the suit property, i.e. 292 sq-yds plot under the city survey No. E/770/1, situated in the Pucca Qilla Colony. He urged court defendants should be restrained from harassing or dispossessing him from suit property.

According to the case file, the plaintiff’s counsel submitted a list of official witnesses, including Mukhtiarkar and sub-registrar of Taluka City, municipal commissioner and assistant director of katchi abadis. They were required to produce the record regarding the suit property.

So far, Waheed Ahmed, assistant city surveyor katchi abadis, Sajid Iqbal, assistant director of the Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA), sub-registrar Mohammad Aslam and city surveyor ward-A Ghulam Murtaza have appeared before court along with relevant documents.

Now, the HMC municipal commissioner is required to appear before the senior civil judge-V.

The hearing has been fixed for Jan 15, 2025 when interim injunction on plaintiff’s application would be heard.

The plaintiff in his suit cited the assistant director of katchi abadis and mukhtiarkar of Taluka City, Hyderabad DC, SHO of the Fort police station, HMC municipal commissioner and department of culture, heritage, tourism, antiquities and archives department as defendants.

He has claimed that he is the legal and lawful owner of the suit property bearing plot No. 1414.

He has mentioned that the suit property was previously leased from defendant No-2 (assistant director of katchi abadis) to one, Maqsood Khan, on June 18, 2009. The plaintiff said he bought it from Maqsood Khan under an agreement on Oct 25, 2012. On Jan 11, 2013, Maqsood executed a sale deed in favour of the plaintiff. The possession of the property was handed over to him on Feb 21, 2014.

He stated that the additional Hyderabad DC issued a letter on July 5, 2023 wherein ownership of the plaintiff was accepted and the City mukhtiarkar was directed to demarcate the land. The mukhtiarkar issued a letter to the director of settlement, survey & land records for demarcation of the suit property and ownership of plaintiff was accepted.

He mentioned that after demarcation, he started construction on the property but the defendants, DC and SHO came to the property and stopped the construction work although the plaintiff produced property documents. They were not ready to listen anything, the plaintiff claimed.

According to the written statement submitted by Waqas Siddiqui and provided to Dawn by him, “the case pertained to forgery, fraud and bogus papers prepared in a bid to get the suit property regularized”.

According to his statement, “the plot is not HMC’s property, rather the culture department is custodian of the entire land, being an archaeological site”. The counsel insisted that the HMC had nothing to do with it. “The papers of the plot, created fraudulently, have been declared null and void by HMC accordingly, and culture department is required to protect its land,” the lawyer said.

The counsel’s statement said that the municipal commissioner had also withdrawn the letter issued previously by the HMC for approval of layout plan for a commercial plaza.

Such intimation was also given to the Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA), read the statement.

It claimed that the lease deed was fraudulently executed in favour of Maqsood Ahmed Khan by defunct City taluka municipal administration (TMA) and it had been declared null and void, and the relevant entry in the revenue record had been cancelled.

Published in Dawn, December 29th, 2024