HYDERABAD: The Hyd­er­­abad circuit bench of the Sindh High Court on Thursday ordered Hyder­abad deputy commissioner to mobilise the Anti-Encroachment Force (AEF) and ask it to carry out patrolling throughout the city and take action against encroachers.

The division bench comprising Justices Mohammad Iqbal Kalhoro and Adnanul Karim Memon passed the order while hearing identical petitions filed by Rabiur Rehman, Irtafaur Rehman and Shanur Rehman, residents of Qasimabad on the issue of encroachments

Hyderabad deputy commissioner Fuad Ghaffar Soomro said that AEF, of which he was ex officio director general, was responsible for the removal of immovable encroachment from government land and routine encroachments were to be handled by Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (HMC).

There was shortage of traffic police personnel in Hyderabad as well as machinery for the task of removal of encroachments. The HMC’s anti-encroachment cell needed to share their plan for the drive. As the AEF head, the DC could recover fine from encroachers as per law which did not cover vendors and pushcarts, he said.

‘A civil judge be appointed to inspect areas from where encroachments have been cleared’

The bench directed special secretary of Sindh local government department to move a summary to chief minister to seek special grant for procurement of machinery for the removal of encroachments from the city and get Octroi zila tax (OZT) share for HMC released.

It ordered that an officer from Cantonment Board Hyderabad (CBH) should appear before the court on next date of hearing on Jan 27 to explain encroachment related matters in CBH’s limits, and ordered sessions judge to depute a civil judge who would visit the areas from where encroachments had been removed as per the administration’s claim and submit a report.

The DC submitted to the bench progress report on anti-encroachment drive and said that soft encroachment had been removed by the administration and those who were affected by the action were now holding protests on a daily basis.

He said that in line with past order of the court, the local government department and Hyderabad Development Authority (HDA) shared reports about amenity plots, playgrounds and open spaces only two days back.

He cited Islamabad Capital Territory’s law that said that encroachment drive was to be launched by municipal body, which in Hyderabad’s case was HMC, and said assistant commissioners used to have magisterial powers that were later withdrawn. “Submit your proposal [for executive magistracy powers for administration officers] to us and we will ask the government to do some legislation on it,” said Justice Kalhoro.

Advocate Imdad Unnar, who was appearing on behalf of Municipal Committee Qasimabad, disagreed with the DC’s contention on AEF and said that under section 19 of Anti-Encroachment Act 2010 encroachment’s removal on entire ’land’ was responsibility of AEF.

He said that the DC as ex officio director general of AEF could not deviate from the law.

Unnar drew attention of the court towards the fact that encroachments also existed in CBH limits but its management was not cooperating in this regard.

Justice Kalhoro asked the DC to write to the department concerned for seeking help on behalf of this court.

An official of finance department informed the court that his department did not release special funds to any council for removal of encroachments or for procurement of machinery for the purpose. However, the secretary concerned could move a summary to the chief minister to seek funds under special grant, he said.

The bench directed special secretary of Sindh LG Zubair Pervez to submit a summary to the chief minister for special grant including funds for HMC’s OZT share.

The court directed Hyderabad sessions judge to appoint a civil judge for inspecting the areas from where encroachments had been removed as per DC’s claim and submit a report.

The court ordered DC Hyderabad to mobilise AEF to patrol the city and take action against encroachers. An officer from CBH should appear in court on Jan 27, it said.

The court said that relocation of poles from roads had been discussed in past hearing for which a proposal had been sent to Sindh government to be decided by finance department.

Published in Dawn, December 24th, 2021