KARACHI, Oct 25: The Supreme Court on Thursday issued show-cause notices for contempt of court to the Sindh chief secretary, the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation director of master plan, the senior member of the board of revenue and other relevant officials for not conducting a land survey in the city as was ordered by the Sindh High Court several years back.

A five-member larger bench of the apex court comprising Justices Anwer Zaheer Jamali, Sarmad Jalal Osmany, Khilji Arif Hussain, Gulzar Ahmed and Amir Hani Muslim was seized with the proceedings for the implementation of the apex court’s earlier order in a Karachi killings suo motu case.At the outset of the hearing, KMC official Ittefaq Qaimkhani, a member of the land utilisation department, Ghulam Mustafa, and director of the survey department presented their respective reports and maps of the city.

The bench rejected the city maps presented by the officials saying they were old ones, showing the city divided in districts and not in towns.

Advocate Fateh Malik said the land record was being computerised and a summary of a comprehensive survey had been forwarded to the Sindh chief minister.

The bench remarked that if manual maps were incorrect, so would be the computerised ones.

Later, the KMC official presented another set of maps that showed town demarcations.

Justice Jamali, heading the bench, remarked that no practical steps had been taken to conduct a survey of the NA class state land in the city.

Justice Gulzar Ahmed said the respondent officials should be served with contempt of court notices as they did not conduct the survey despite the orders of the SHC in 2005.

The bench issued notices to the officials to explain as to why contempt of court proceedings not be initiated against them for not complying with the directions of the SHC to the board of revenue for conducting a survey of government land.

Justice Gulzar Ahmed said the areas dedicated for citizen amusement in the downtown had been sold and the there was no space for children to play on. “Amusement places are equally important like security,” he remarked.

The AG stated that at least six months were required to complete the survey, and so was stated by the member of the land utilisation department.

Justice Jamali remarked that the officials would be telling the court after six months that the survey could not be conducted because there was no will to do so.

Justice Khilji remarked that everyone was making mockery of court orders.

When the bench inquired that why the member of board of revenue was not present in court, it was informed that he was on sick leave.

Justice Jamali asked the officials why the exercise was not being conducted when the department had all necessary facilities, including computers.

He said the encroachments and land-grabbing was one of the main factors behind violence in the city.

Justice Jamali remarked that land-grabbing was prevalent in the city, but the revenue department had no record of it.

About the foreigners in the city, the inspector general of police presented a report which, the bench said, was disappointing.

The IG said 890 illegal immigrants, including 670 Indians and 280 Afghans, had been deported in the past one year.

The bench recalled that it was told that there were over two million illegal immigrants in the city. “Where are they?” Justice Jamali asked and added that illegal immigrants from certain countries were living in the outskirts of the city.

He said the issue of aliens was very much related to the unrest in the city and it needed to be addressed.

Justice Gulzar remarked that all foreigners living here should be deported to their respective countries.

Justice Osmany said at least all aliens must be documented. “We are already overpopulated, how can we regularise them?’ he said.

The chief secretary conceded that there was no comprehensive policy to deal with aliens.

Justice Jamali remarked that aliens from different countries, including Iran, Myanmar and Tajikstan, were in the city and they could get all documents within 15 days by greasing the palms of relevant officials.

In reply to a court query, the IG said 254 policemen who had taken part in the operations of 1992 and 1996 had been murdered.

He said the families of 239 killed policemen had been paid compensation.

Additional home secretary Waseem Ahmed said only 15 judicial or official inquiries on the law and order situation in Karachi were available on the home department’s record. He said no inquiry report of 1997 or before was on the record.

When asked, the home secretary stated that no inquiry report of the Bushra Zaidi incident was on the record. “It means the record has been removed,” Justice Jamali said.

The hearing was adjourned to Oct 31.