KARACHI: The Supreme Court on Thursday observed that apparently the counsel for builders of Tejori Heights, Gulshan-i-Iqbal, remained unable to establish the ownership of the land being used for the construction of a multi-storey building on the plot.

However, the builders’ lawyer again requested for some time to seek instructions from the his clients when the three-member bench headed by Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed was intending to pass an order. The hearing was put off for the day.

The other members of the bench are Justice Ijaz Ul Ahsan and Justice Qazi Mohammad Amin Ahmed.

The under-construction building is located near near the abandoned Gilani railway station of the Karachi Circular Railway. Pakistan Railways has claimed that the subject land had been allotted for the KCR and the same had been encroached upon by the builders.

When the matter came up for hearing on Thursday, senior counsel Raza Rabbani, representing the builders, made further submissions as he had also argued in the matter on Oct 25 and 26. However, he could not give a satisfactory reply to several questions raised by the bench to establish the title of the land.

Last ditch efforts by builders to save under-construction building from demolition

The CPJ observed that the construction on the land appeared to be illegal as the documents produced in the court were manipulated, and remarked that one could get any document from the board of revenue against a bribe.

He asked the lawyer to get instructions from his clients whether they were going to demolish the building or the court should pass an order in this regard.

Justice Ahsan asked the lawyer that the power of attorney only related to survey 190 and it did not speak about survey 188 or any other surveyed or Na-class (un-surveyed land).

He further said that there should have been a fresh sale deed for new/substitute property as title could not be transferred by rectification of general power of attorney or sale agreement.

While responding to another argument of the counsel, Justice Ahsan said that if the sale deed of the property in question was made in 2015 then why they waited for five years for rectification. The rectification deed could not constitute a sale deed, he added.

The counsel also drew the attention of the bench to a decree issued by a senior civil judge in 1989 about the land in question but Justice Ahsan observed that how adverse possession decree and ex-party decree could be issued about a state land.

When Mr Rabbani attempted to bank on a summary approved by the then chief minister about the subject land, the CJP said that the CM had nothing to do with it as he had no powers to grant government land to any private person.

The bench observed that till the cancellation of the sale deed of survey 190, allotment could not be made in survey 188.

The counsel argued that there was a typographic mistake regarding survey 190. However, the CJP did not agree saying that ‘survey 190’ was written everywhere in the documents.

The lawyer repeatedly requested the bench to send the matter back to the Sindh High Court where a suit about the land in question was filed by Pakistan Railways.

In December last year, the apex court had ordered immediate suspension of work on Tejori Heights and barred the builders from creating a third-party interest.

It had said that on the basis of documents, prima facie there was no right of Tejori Heights on the land in question and directed the commissioner of Karachi to take over the site till further order.

The lawyer for the PR had contended that the land belonged to the railways and an illegal construction was being made on the basis of forged documents.

Later, the builders had filed a review petition before the apex court against its earlier order. However, on Oct 25, Mr Rabbani informed the bench that he was withdrawing the review application and willing to make arguments as an intervener in another application filed by the railways about the subject land in the apex court. The bench allowed him to advance his arguments.

Published in Dawn, October 29th, 2021