KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Wednesday directed the deputy commissioner (east), police and Rangers to remove encroachments from the land of a housing society.

A two-judge bench headed by Justice Nadeem Akhtar also asked them to complete the operation and file compliance reports till Nov 14.

The Pakistan Post Office Employees Cooperative Housing Society had petitioned the SHC in 2021 and contended that over 71 acres of the petitioner, located in Scheme 33, Gulzar-i-Hijri, had been encroached upon since 2016.

In December last year, the high court had directed the Rangers and police to provide force to the district administration in order to implement its orders after the DC and SSP East had submitted that encroachment could not be removed despite several attempts, and sought additional force to get the land vacated.

High court also censures SBCA chief for flouting orders to demolish building

At the outset of the hearing on Wednesday, a nazir through his report informed the bench that 71.12 acres belonging to the petitioner society was under encroachment.

The lawyer for the petitioner drew the attention of court to one of earlier orders passed on Dec 15 about removal of encroachment from the society’s land.

The lawyer for Pakistan Rangers, Sindh and an assistant advocate general Sindh assured the bench that earlier court orders would be complied with by the paramilitary force, Sindh police and DC concerned in letter and spirit.

The bench directed them to do the needful and file compliance report till the next hearing.

SBCA chief summoned

The same bench has expressed serious resentment over the Sindh Building Control Authority’s inaction with regard to the illegal construction of a building in Nazimabad and summoned its director general.

The court also directed the DG to ensure demolishing of the building before the next hearing and sought a compliance report.

Earlier, the high court had issued several orders for the demolition of the five-storey building after SBCA officials submitted that the same was raised without any approved building plan.

The bench observed that apparently apart from for issuing eviction notices, no other action had been taken by the SBCA to implement the court orders.

It also noted that the construction in question took around 20 months to complete but SBCA and its officials completely failed in discharging their statutory functions.

The bench directed the SBCA DG to appear before it on Nov 7 along with details of the officials who were posted in the district concerned where the construction in question was raised so that their cases could be sent to the anti-corruption establishment for appropriate action against them.

Published in Dawn, October 19th, 2023