KARACHI, Sept 30: The shifting of the sub-registrar office from Lyari Town to Saddar Town has stirred a great resentment among the residents of the area who are now having a hard time in getting their legal property documents registered.

Recently a delegation of local people called on the town nazim, Mehmud Hashim, to lodge their protest against the decision. The town nazim said he was fully aware of the sensitivity of the issue and problems being faced by the people in this regard.

He assured them that he would take up the issue with the authorities to find out a solution to it.

The locals told the nazim that officers in the new office located in the Railway Colony were not easily accessible. Consequently, they said, they had to run from pillar to post for the registration of their documents.

They urged the nazim that the sub-registrar office should be immediately shifted to Lyari town to ease the sufferings of the people.

The delegation also urged the nazim to shift the excise and taxation office from old Golimar to their town.

The sub-registrar office was housed in a historical building situated in Baghdadi union council area near D.D. Chowdhry Road which was constructed in 1912, and before the establishment of the sub-registrar office, it was housed in a municipal vaccination centre and it had remained in the use of sanitation staff section of the health department.

A controversy started between the city government and the Lyari town in 2003 over the ownership of the property following the implementation of the devolution plan as the registrar office was moved to some other place and the vacated structure was abandoned.

When the city government proposed to auction the site, representatives of local NGOs and the administration of the town opposed the decision.

Subsequently, the public outrage was finally discussed at a meeting called by the city nazim who reversed the decision after reviewing objections raised by the Lyari town nazim to the auction for which bids had already been invited.

Earlier, in his memorandum, submitted soon after the city government’s decision, the nazim of Lyari town had told the city nazim that the conversion of this historical building into a commercial complex would encourage the land mafia which was out to make petty financial gains out of the invaluable properties in the city without considering their cultural importance.