KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Thursday asked the director general (DG) of the Malir Development Authority (MDA) to file record about the criteria to allot land as well as the mechanism employed by the authority in the balloting process over the past six years.

Comprising Justice Salahuddin Panhwar and Justice Mohammad Abdur Rahman, the two-judge bench also directed the DG to furnish a comprehensive report regarding initiation and progression of various schemes, development projects, agricultural & framing schemes as well as agricultural research and plant protection measures since the inception of the MDA.

It also said that such record must also contain whether essential objectives, purposes and schemes delineated in the MDA Act of 1993 had been implemented with rigorous adherence to both explicit provisions and underlying intent of the statute particularly concerning the socio-economic advancement of the populace of the region, from its inception.

“Furthermore, it must include comprehensive particulars with regard to the allocation of Malir Development Authority’s funds, delineating the methods of fund management, utilisation and whether any portion of these funds has been allocated to profitable ventures,” it added.

The bench was hearing a petition filed in 2021 by some individuals about a dispute of an agricultural land with the MDA and sought entitlement to an alternative land/plot alternative, monetary compensation.

The lawyer for the MDA argued that the scheme was originally launched by the Karachi Development Authority (KDA), but was subsequently transferred to the MDA.

The bench noted that the MDA had conducted plot allocations through balloting process and was obligated to develop the project, having collected funds from the participants for that purpose.

At the outset of hearing, MDA DG Najabuddin Sahito appeared in response to a show-cause notice issued earlier and the bench said that since he had submitted a satisfactory reply, the notice was hereby recalled.

The bench observed that the issue in question related to the operations of MDA and the MDA Act preamble stated that the law was enacted in 1993 to facilitate the development of designated areas within Karachi division to enhance the socio-economic conditions of the inhabitants and functions of the authority were defined in Section 8.

It also referred to several other provisions of the law about formulation of particular schemes for designated controlled areas, generation and utilisation of funds, mandated to create a sinking fund dedicated to the repayment of any loans procured by the authority.

The preamble and the provisions of the act of 1993 collectively establish a thorough and definitive framework for the implementation of the act’s principal objectives and schemes, it added.

About the stance of petitioners, the counsel for the MDA raised the contention that the petitioners were unlawfully occupying the land in question.

He further asserted that the MDA currently possessed no land for allocation and the authority’s mandate was now confined to the development of three specific schemes — Malir Housing Scheme-1, Shah Latif Town Scheme 25-A and Taiser Town Scheme-45.

Adjourning the matter till April 25, the bench also directed the provincial authorities concerned to file comments till next hearing and said that since apparently those schemes were originally initiated by the KDA, therefore, the KDA DG must submit a report about the acquisition of the land in question.

Published in Dawn, March 29th, 2024