SHC halts handing over of Bagh Ibn-e-Qasim

Court orders suspension of govt order to hand over park to Bahria Town till next hearing on April 18

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) suspended on Monday the operation of the provincial government's notification handing over Karachi's largest public park - Bagh Ibn-e-Qasim - to Bahria Town.

A two-judge bench, headed by Justice Junaid Ghaffar, passed this order on a petition filed by Karachi Mayor Wasim Akhtar and Deputy Mayor Arshad Vohra, challenging the local government secretary's notification to hand over the public park to the real estate giant for a period of 10 years.

An application was also filed requesting for an urgent hearing on the plea.

The mayor challenged the notification dated March 30, read with the agreement of the same date, between the local government department secretary and Bahria Town, through which the mayor was directed to hand over possession of Bagh Ibn-e-Qasim along with an aquarium situated in Clifton to the private real estate developer.

Akhtar contended that the park is the property of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation, but the local government secretary had unilaterally and without taking him into confidence issued the subject notification and letter, including the agreement.

He argued that the subject notification refers to an earlier notification, dated November 21, 2016.

However, the judges found that the petitioner did not have that notification available for the court's perusal.



Notwithstanding this, the petitioner's lawyer, Sameer Ghazanfar, also referred to Section 74 of the Sindh Local Government Act, 2013, arguing that only an institution or service maintained by the council can be transferred to the government. Whereas, the public park in question falls within the definition of neither an institution nor a service, he added.

Referring to the Part-I of the Schedule-II of the Sindh Local Government Act, 2013, the petitioner's lawyer argued it is the responsibility of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation to transfer the functions of controlling the land owned by it.

Further referring to the Part-II in the Schedule-II of the Act (Item No 52), he contended that insofar as the parks and gardens were concerned, such powers are exclusively vested in the metropolitan corporation to maintain and create any recreation for the convenience of the general public.

He argued that the agreement signed between the LG secretary and Bahria Town is a commercial arrangement, whereby they have settled certain terms and conditions. Though the management of the park is being handed over to the private builder, the government will still be paying salary of staff and allocating budgets.

The mayor also relied on a judgment passed by the Supreme Court in a case relating to a portion of Bagh Ibn-e-Qasim, wherein commercial activity was initiated and the apex court had concluded that 'no commercial activity could be carried on, on an amenity plot'.



Therefore, the court was pleaded to suspend the operation of the March 30 notification to hand over the public park to the private real estate giant. A restraining order against such arrangement was also sought till the final disposal of the matter.

After hearing initial arguments the judges issued notices to the respondents as well as the Sindh advocate-general for April 18.

"Till the next date of the hearing, the portion of the impugned notification dated March 30, 2017 whereby the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation has been directed to hand over the possession of the park to the respondent 4 (Bahria Town) shall remain suspended," the judges ordered.

The top provincial government law officer, Bahria Town and other respondents were directed to file their comments by the next date of hearing.