KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) has summoned a deputy commissioner (DC) for not complying with its orders for removing encroachments from the land of a housing society near the Superhighway.

Headed by Justice Yousuf Ali Sayeed, the two-judge bench noted that repeated orders had been issued for the removal of encroachments on the land in question, but the compliance had not been made yet.

A provincial law officer also admitted that the court orders had not been complied with.

Adjourning the hearing till Feb 2, it directed the DC-East to be in attendance on the next hearing.

The Bijnor Cooperative Housing Society, located in Scheme 33, through its chairman had petitioned the SHC in 2018 and submitted that its land had been encroached upon and pleaded for removal of such occupation.

The SHC had passed several orders to vacate the land from the encroachers and subsequently, the DC contended that no effective step to remove such encroachments could be taken by the district administration without adequate assistance from law enforcement agencies, especially Rangers, as there was serious apprehension of creating the law and order situation.

Thereafter, the SHC had ordered the DC to call a meeting of all stakeholders before launching of such operation for full assistance of providing requisite force to an initiate anti-encroachment drive and also asked the Rangers and police to provide the required support.

Published in Dawn, January 26th, 2025