Watchdog: Karachi railways affairs not as dismal as feared, says NA panel

The meeting was briefed on the status of encroachments on Pakistan Railways lands

KARACHI: Over 983 acres of land of the Pakistan Railways (PR) Karachi division is under illegal occupation. Of this, only 70 acres have been recovered by the division's officials in the last two years.

This was revealed by the PR's division superintendent Nisar Ahmed Memon at a briefing before a sub-committee of the National Assembly's standing committee on railways. The meeting on Friday, which included MNAs Ramesh Lal, Chaudhry Jaffar Iqbal, Sardar Muhammad Irfan Dogar and Dr Nasir Ahmed Jatt, was held at the Karachi city railway station.

The meeting was briefed about the operational performance of the Karachi division and the status of its land holdings. Memon informed the MNAs that the Karachi division has seen an increase in revenue by almost 27.95 per cent in the current year.



According to him, the division owns over 20,000 acres, out of which around 983 acres were under illegal occupation. The encroachments include 519 acres of katchi abadis, 370 acres of miscellaneous encroachments and 24 acres encroached by government agencies such as Frontier Works Organisation, Pakistan Air Force, SITE and the Water and Power Development Authority.

Memon told the meeting that around 43 acres of land was illegally occupied by Gul Ahmed Textiles where the latter had constructed a warehouse. He added that the matter had been referred to the National Accountability Bureau, Sindh. "If the government conducts proper demarcation of the land, the matter will be clear," he said, referring to a bogus joint demarcation on the basis of which the land has been occupied. "We have the documents of the land signed in 1962 by a collector at the time and the matter has been assigned to a lawyer to file the case."

Another case Memon referred to was the encroachment by King's Classic Builders and Developers who had encroached over two acres. Pakistan Railways have obtained a stay order on the construction on this property, he said.



On the progress in the recovery of the encroached land, Memon said that they had recovered 17 acres from cattle farms in Hijrat Colony, 53 acres of agricultural land in Jumma Goth and 2,000 square years at Kalapul from service stations shops. He added that 70 staff quarters had been evacuated at Station Colony, Kotri.

During the presentation, Dr Nasir Ahmed Jatt shared his experience of travelling by train and appreciated the efforts of the PR Karachi Division for the recovery of encroached land.

"We had heard about a far worse situation in Karachi but the ground reality is much better than what we had anticipated," he said. The ratio of encroachment is comparatively less than in other areas," he said, adding that the value of the land in Karachi was much higher.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 16^th, 2014.