KARACHI: Police told to protect Malir villagers
KARACHI, April 22: The Sindh High Court asked the police to provide protection to the residents of Malir village facing eviction and demolition of their houses.
Petitioner Noor Muhammad Jutt alleged through Advocate Gohar Iqbal that he and other residents of Chashma Goth fishermen’s village, Deh Rehri, Tapo Ibrahim Hyderi, Malir, were being harassed by encroachers led by Dawood Jutt and aided and abetted by police. The village ‘has about 200 houses built over 200 acres’. The SHC, disposing of a 1988 suit for declaration and permanent injunction in 2005, had advised the relevant authorities to consider grant of land to the villagers, who had long been in possession of it. Meanwhile, the price of the land shot up and grabbers started encroaching upon it. They carved up plots for sale and demolished some houses under police protection. The male residents were harassed into fleeing the village.
A division bench comprising Justices Mrs Qaiser Iqbal and Syed Mahmood Alam Rizvi directed the Bin Qasim town police officer and the station house officer of Ibrahim Hyderi to appear along with record on April 28 and asked the police high-ups to ensure the protection of villagers.
KCB restrained
Another division bench consisting of Justices Mrs Yasmin Abbasy and Nadeem Azhar Siddiqui, meanwhile, restrained the Karachi Cantonment Board (KCB) from establishing a parking lot in front of the National Insurance Company Limited (NICL) on Abbasi Shaheed Road.
Advocate Khalid Mahmood Siddiqui submitted on behalf of the petitioner NICL that the KCB has awarded a contract for collection of parking fee in front of the company’s office. Under the Cantonments Act, 1924, cantonment boards are not empowered to charge parking fee. Besides, the area currently being used by the KCB for parking has not been determined in accordance with the provisions of Section 80 of the Motor Vehicles Ordinance, 1965.
In any event, the counsel further argued, the parking of vehicles in front of the NICL building was causing a security threat and creating a bottleneck in the smooth flow of traffic. The civic agencies, he said, were required to act in accordance with law and ensure convenience of the public rather than causing nuisance merely to generate revenue. Issuing a notice to the KCB, the bench restrained the cantonment board from using the NICL building front for charged parking.
Govt plea dismissed
Justice Khwaja Naveed Ahmed, meanwhile, dismissed a provincial government application for review of his order favouring allotment of 50 acres in Scheme 33 to a plaintiff trading concern.
The application moved by Additional Advocate-General M. Ahmed Pirzada said the suit instituted by M/s Ruqaiya Maqsood Trading Establishment was dismissed by the high court insofar as it concerned the official defendants, including the land utilization department and the board of revenue. The court had, however, ordered an inquiry into the disputed allotment. In compliance of the order, a land utilization department deputy secretary held an inquiry and recommended that the government should resume possession of the land and allot it under the existing land grant policy and if the plaintiff comes forward to purchase the land at the market rate, it should be preferred to avoid future litigation.
The recommended preference to the plaintiff concern was ordered to be deleted by the land utilization secretary as it was beyond the scope of the inquiry. The plaintiff, however, sought allotment on the basis of the recommendation and the court ordered issuance of a challan for payment of the allotment price.The government said in its review application that the order in a dismissed suit was obtained by the plaintiff by misrepresentation and suppression of facts. Contesting the application, the plaintiff’s counsel, Salman Hamid, argued that it was not maintainable and that the only appropriate remedy available to the government was an intra-court appeal within the period of limitation.