Property issue : Land utilisation dept member to resolve dispute

KDA officer filed petition over alleged illegal occupation of her land by the Rangers

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) has directed a member of the land utilisation department of the provincial Board of Revenue to decide a dispute between the Rangers and a private person regarding the allotment of land in the Karachi Development Authority (KDA) Officers Cooperative Housing Society.

This direction came on a petition filed by KDA officer Abida Tarannum, who had taken the provincial director-general of the paramilitary force, the KDA Officers Cooperative Housing Society and senior member of the provincial board of revenue to court over the alleged illegal occupation of her land by the Rangers. The petitioner claimed to be the owner of a 200-square-yard plot, No A-27, in Block B of the KDA Officers Cooperative Housing Society. According to her, the plot falls in the 84.11 acres of land in the Naclass 177, Survey No 19 and 21, Deh Okewari, Gulshan-e-Iqbal.

Her lawyers, Syed Zaki Muhammad and S Wajahat Abbas, informed the court that the land was allotted by the provincial Board of Revenue to the KDA Officers Cooperative Housing Society. They recalled that in 2006, the society's management had allowed the paramilitary force to reside in an Inspection Bungalow on COD Hills, as temporary arrangement to maintain the law and order situation in the city. However, to the great shock of the petitioner and others, the Rangers had illegally and unlawfully occupied their lands in connivance with the society's management and revenue authorities, they added.

The court was told that the society and Board of Revenue's authorities had failed to hand over possession of the plot to the petitioner, even though she had paid all the requisite charges and despite her making several requests to do so. Therefore, the court was pleaded to declare that the paramilitary force had no lawful right over the plots of the petitioner and other allottees under the relevant by-laws. It was further requested to direct them to vacate the land immediately.

Taking up the matter on Tuesday, the judges observed that a statement dated November 4, 2015, was filed by the secretary of the provincial government's relevant department on behalf of the Board of Revenue's senior member, which is available on the court's record. As per the statement, the entry was available in favour of the KDA Officers Cooperative Housing Society but no record regarding allotment of the land in favour of the society was traceable.

They further observed that along with the said statement, a copy of the letter dated October 29, 2015, addressed to the relevant mukhtiarkar is also attached, in which it is stated that suo motu case No 03/2015 is pending before the competent authority in view of the reference made by the District East deputy commissioner regarding allotment of the land to the society. Additional advocate-general Miran Muhammad Shah and assistant mukhtiarkar Abdul Rasheed stated that the above-named suo motu proceedings are still pending.

"All the parties agree that this petition may be disposed of by directing Revisional Authority and Member Land Utilisation to decide the suo motu proceedings latest by January 14, 2017, strictly in accordance with the law and after providing full opportunity of hearing to the petitioner as well as the stakeholders," read the court order.

Therefore, the court ordered that by consent, the petition and the listed applications are disposed of in the terms, with further direction to Revisional Authority and Member Land Utilisation to file compliance report to the MIT of this court latest by January 21, 2017.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 13^th, 2016.