• Says survey could determine actual position of multi-billion rupee project
• Board of Revenue can change status of protected forest lands, SHC told

HYDERABAD: A senior government official on Wednesday informed the Sindh High Court that the actual site position of the Bahria Town Karachi 2 (BTK-2) could only be determined after a survey and establishing latest ownership of the land in each Deh.

The Sindh forest secretary had earlier informed the SHC that the “BTK-2 has been approved wrongly by the Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA) and Sehwan Development Authority (SDA) on forest lands as evident from attested maps”.

A division bench comprising Justice Mohammad Junaid Ghaffar and Justice Adnanul Karim Memon resumed the hearing of the case at the Circuit bench, Hyderabad. It adjourned the hearing till May 23.

Petitioner Salahuddin moved the SHC stating that BTK-2 was located close to PAF Base Bholari on Karachi-Hyderabad side of M-9 close to highly sensitive defence installations. He said the project undermined and compromised defence of the country. He said land on which BTK-2 (with extension) situated in Than Bula Khan was being developed on state/public land and entries shown in BTK-2 of scattered pieces of land were bogus entries.

He asked the court to form a joint investigation team to physically survey and investigate title and ownership of the land on which BTK-2 layout plan was drawn.

On Wednesday, Additional Advocate General Allah Bachayo Soomro filed comments on behalf of the respondent forest secretary as well as a statement of Senior Member Board of Revenue (SMBR) regarding ‘mother entries’ of the subject land.

Taking a different position from what he had stated in the earlier hearing, the forest secretary stated in the comments: “Actual site position with latest entries could only be determined after survey of total lands of Dehs by earmarking lands on ground and maps as per latest ownership of land in each Deh. Prima facie land in dispute with regard to petition doesn’t fall within protected forests.”

In his earlier comments, he had stated: “Layout of BTK-2 is very likely on forest lands which is evident from attested maps annexed within”. Notified forest lands have been wrongly mutated by revenue officers.”

However, in the fresh comments he submitted that the Board of Revenue (BoR) was the custodian of the record of state lands including protected forest.

“Any changes in the status of land due to allotment is done by BoR. Change in ownership and its subsequent entries are registered by relevant officers of BoR and land record. Thus forest department is not in a position to determine latest entry position in record of rights of abovementioned Dehs,” he stated.

He stated that due to some error/misconception earlier comments pertaining to the SBCA were filed; however actual position was that the status of protected forest land could be changed by the custodian department i.e. BoR and such entries could be made in record of rights as done in the past in cases of Deh Chuhar and other Dehs of district Malir and Bin Qasim Town.

“Actual site position of BTK-2 can be determined accurately by detailed survey and mapping of land of each owner of Deh maps which could be done by Survey of Pakistan, BoR and Forest department,” he stated.

After receiving a copy of the comments from a government law officer on Wednesday, petitioner’s counsel Fayyaz Metlo told Dawn that the secretary in his previous comments had stated that “forestland in above deh are notified as protected forestland under Section 4 of Forest Act 1927 vide notification dated May 7,1966”.

He said according to the comments the forest department and Survey of Pakistan were preparing maps and doing demarcation of forest lands.

On the last date of hearing, the petitioner’s counsel had informed the court that the forest secretary stated in his comments that the SDA and SBCA had wrongly approved project.

The counsel stated that the forest secretary also said that “notified forestlands have been wrongly mutated by revenue officers. BTK-2 has been approved wrongly by SBCA and SDA on forest lands as evident from attested maps. Lands have been kept in register of forests by revenue department therefore lands cannot be owned by respondents 13 and 14 (BTK-2 and M/s Paradise Real Estate).

“Record of land annexed with petition shows that other entries were recorded on the basis of verbal statements without any allotment or transfer by government to people. Forest land could not be transferred without de-notifying in any circumstances to any person and it can only be used for forest purposes. In the instant case no de-notification has ever been issued by Sindh government,” he stated in his earlier comments.

Published in Dawn, April 27th, 2023